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Virginia points the way on Internet safety

Started by TLF · 11 months ago

As I have pointed out here many times before, education is a vital part of online child protection efforts. In fact, if there is one point I try to get across in my report on “Parental Controls and Online Child Safety,” it is that, regardless of how robust they might be today ... Continue reading »

4 comments

  • bradencox

    1 year ago

    Unfortunately, the article recites the same misleading statistic that is always mentioned in online safety contexts: "One in Seven Children ages 10 to 17 has been sexually solicited while online." A leading online safety expert, Nancy Willard, has refuted this statistic by saying:

    One in 7 young people are not being sexually solicited by adult sexual predators. The term sexual solicitation in the study included what was essentially sexual harassment and the majority of the sexual harassment came from other teens. But hidden within the data was the fact that 64% of the aggressive solicitations (where the solicitor wanted to meet) were from those under the age of 18 and 16% came from females


    And empowered with education, kids and parents can help reduce the risk of real sexual solicitations even more.
    reply
  • Self Appointed Genius

    1 year ago

    This is a good start, but it's only going to work if it's done right. It never ceases to amaze me how many people are convinced that .org sites are more credible, that there's some sort of vetting process before you can get one.
    reply
  • Wyatt Ditzler

    1 year ago

    It is not only the children that need education pertaining to information literacy. I dare say the parents are in just as much need.

    Also, putting information literacy on the school examinations may be required and probably should be included on the assessment exams.
    reply
  • Luke Gilkerson

    1 year ago

    As Virginia sees the importance of educating teens and parents about Internet safety, it is more important that parents take the need for this seriously: be informed, be involved. I urge parents to take advantage of the helpful resources out there about Internet safety. A little knowledge goes along way.

    For more information on children's Internet safety, check out some of these blog posts. I'd love to hear your comments:
    1. Safety Tips for Parents: http://www.covenanteyes.com/blog/2008/03/25/a-p...
    2. Online Predators: http://www.covenanteyes.com/blog/2008/04/03/pro...
    3. Cyberbullying: http://www.covenanteyes.com/blog/2008/04/07/cyb...
    reply

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