Teaching Digital Safety

"Stop Cyberbullying"

     I remember making a myspace account in my 8^th grade without having any proper background knowledge about what the Internet was capable of. After these insightful presentations, I realized I could have easily been a victim. By involving myself in the digital world, I was in constant danger. Students are often naïve and we automatically assume, everyone is a nice person. We do not consider the horrific consequences that it can have on us – emotionally and physically. The four topics – cyberbullying, copyrights and fair use, phishing and pharming, and textual harassment and sexting – raised realistic concerns in a digital world that we live in.
     As technology advances, there are new dangers emerging in the digital world. I would add online sexual predators into the educational unit. Instead of face-to-face interaction, the digital world access screen-to-face interaction. It allows people to remain anonymous, while sharing vital information that can potentially risk a child. According to the Journal of Adolescent Health (2010), “65% of online sex offenders used the victim’s social networking site to gain home and school information about the victim.” A harmless social network that children created for engaging with others became a portal for predators. In some cases, predators enact their fantasies into reality by abducting innocent children and using them for their pleasure.
    There are stigmas attached to talking about online sexual predators, but we have to spread awareness to prevent any more victims. As a future educator, I would teach my students the dangers that lie in the digital world, because students are mandated to be active online participants to succeed in school. I would introduce true stories about children who were attacked by online predators such as Alicia Kozakiewicz. At the age of 13, she was abducted and tortured by an online predator, who she thought was her best friend. Kozakiewicz said “people who do not believe that their children could ever become victimized online are living in an unrealistic world” (2013). It can happen to anyone and certainly it could have happened to me.
     In school, we are often focused on academic performances and tend to neglect teaching social factors that are as important in the student’s life. After seeing videos that incorporates cyberbullying, sexting, online predators, and many more, I would encourage creating a media project to help raise awareness for students, who do not understand the danger of the digital world. It is important for people to understand digital safety as technology continues to advance. Now we must share our knowledge to others and help those who are wounded.
     Although tools help communication between group members, participation in a group project depends on the individual’s effort and motivation. We used Wiggio to communicate, but some of the members would not respond in a timely manner. Nonetheless we worked together to complete the assignment to inform the class about copyright issues and fair user practices. Joomag was the selection of our choice as presentation tool. Although I liked the overall features and the look of the website, I disliked that we had to take turns to input information and edit the page. 
     All the digital safety topics that were addressed in the class were important for students to be aware of, because we live in a world that is drastically influenced by technology. If I were to change something about the assignment, I would make it a creative video project that addresses the consequences of ignorance. It can be an infomercial to spread awareness especially for teenagers, because cyberbullying, textual harassment, and sexting are happening in the school system. We have to be responsible and take any measures to prevent irreversible consequences such as suicide.   

Predator 101. (2009). InternetSafety101.org: Statistics. Retrieved from

           http://www.internetsafety101.org/Predatorstatistics.htm

Enough is Enough. (2011). Alicia’s Story. [Video file]. Retrieved from
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR0bXZrIErE