Augsburg Logo

Child Safety and the Internet: How To You Keep Your Students Safe Online

(Note: The following lesson was adapted from material obtained at the web site, "The Parents' Guide to the Internet" <http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Tower/4241/topics.html>. This site is a good resource for parents who might ask for assistance in understanding how to keep their kids safe while using the Internet.)

Introduction

Just as you would not allow your students to wander alone into unknown territory, you also would not want them to use the Internet without guidance and supervision. To help you keep your students safe online, this section provides an overview of issues in several areas of the Internet popular with children (email, the Web, and chat rooms).

What can teachers do to keep kids safe? They can:

Consider the following when it comes to taking steps to protect your students:

To assist teachers and parents in this critical area, special software control tools have been developed (see below for more information). These tools, although not perfect by any means, will assist you in protecting your kids.

Risks and Dangers On The Internet

There are several categories of topics that most everyone agrees are completely inappropriate for minors. As you can see, the list is pretty long:

These are not the only inappropriate materials on the World Wide Web for children. You should give serious consideration of what you want to "filter and block" access when your students are on the Internet.

Controling Access to the Internet              

Each teacher, in cooperation with parents of course, must make their own determination as to what is appropriate for their students. However, there is a general consensus regarding certain type of web sites and that must be "filtered and blocked" so children do not inadvertently gain access to them. A number of different organizations have each created their own level of definitions of what is or is not appropriate for children using the Internet. The following is a compendium of those definitions organized by category.

Category Definitions

  1. Violence/Profanity: These would include pictures or text exposing extreme cruelty, physical or emotional acts against an animal or person that are primarily intended to hurt or inflict pain.
  2. Obscene words, phrases and profanity are defined as text that uses, but is not limited to, comedian George Carlin's 7 censored words.
  3. Partial Nudity: These include pictures exposing the female breast or full exposure of either male or female buttocks. This category would not include swimsuits.
  4. Full Nudity: Pictures exposing any or all portions of the human genitalia. (Note: Partial and Full Nudity categories do not include sites containing nudity or partial nudity of a wholesome or non-sexual nature. For example, web sites for publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazines or sites hosted by museums such as the Guggenheim, Louvre or Museum of Modern Art.)
  5. Sexual Acts: Pictures or text exposing anyone or anything involved in explicit sexual acts and/or lewd and lascivious behavior, including masturbation, copulation, pedophilia, intimacy involving nude or partially nude people in heterosexual, bisexual, lesbian or homosexual encounters. This category would also include phone sex ads, dating services, adult personal ads, CD-ROMs and videos containing the same type of material. Web sites offering the sale of sexual paraphernalia would also be included in this category.
  6. Gross Depictions: Pictures or descriptive text of anyone or anything which are crudely vulgar or grossly deficient in civility or behavior. This would such depictions as maiming, bloody figures, autopsy photos or the indecent depiction of bodily functions.
  7. Intolerance: Pictures or text advocating prejudice or discrimination against any race, color, national origin, religion, disability, handicap, gender or sexual orientation. It would also include intolerant jokes or slurs.
  8. Satanic or Cult: Satanic material is defined as pictures or text advocating devil worship, an affinity for evil or wickedness. A cult is defined as a closed society, often headed by a single individual, where blind loyalty is demanded, where leaving may be punishable, and in some instances, harm to self or others is advocated. Common elements may include encouragement to join, recruiting promises, and influences that tend to compromise the personal exercise of free will and critical thinking.
  9. Drugs/Drug Culture: Pictures or text advocating the illegal use of drugs for entertain-ment or "recreational purposes." This would include substances used for other than their primary purpose in order to alter the individual's state of mind, such as glue sniffing. This category generally does not include material about the use of illegal drugs when they are legally prescribed for medicinal purposes, e.g., drugs used to treat glaucoma or cancer.
  10. Militant/Extremist: Pictures or text advocating extremely aggressive or combative behaviors or advocacy of unlawful political measures. Topics would normally include groups that advocate violence as a means to achieve their goals. It would also include "how to" information on weapons making, ammunition making or the making and/or use of pyrotechnics materials as well as the use of any of these for unlawful purposes.
  11. Questionable/Illegal Gambling: Pictures or text advocating materials or activities of a dubious nature that may be illegal in any or all jurisdictions, such as illegal business schemes, chain letters, copyright infringement, computer hacking, "phreaking" (using someone's phone likes with permission), and software piracy. It would also include text advocating gambling relating to lotteries, casinos, betting, online sports or financial betting, and "1-900" type phone numbers.
  12. Alcohol & Tobacco: Pictures or text advocating the sale, consumption or production of alcoholic beverages or tobacco products, including commercial web sites in which alcohol or tobacco products are the primary focus. Pub and restaurant web sites featuring social or culinary emphasis, where alcohol consumption is incidental, are not included in this category.
  13. Banners: Any web site posting "Adult Only" advertising or warning banners should also be avoided.
  14. Other Categories

The above categories are intended to only to serve as a guideline based on the types of materials, text and pictures currently on the Internet. Each parent and teacher must make his or her own determination of what is or is not appropriate. There may well be other categories you will want to add. Some parents, for example, may not have a problem with web sites depicting sex education for young people. Other parents may feel it to be totally inappropriate. Even those parents who have no objection to sex education may qualify that approval based on the age of the child, e.g., what is considered appropriate for a teenager may be completely inappropriate for a 7-year old.

Software Tools for Filtering and Blocking

Special software has been developed which can block access to certain kinds of Internet materials. One approach to this task might be to specify individual inappropriate sites to be blocked. The problem with the individual site approach is that it is too labor-intensive--a system administrator would have to personally visit or enter the URL of each site to which they want to block access. There are literally hundreds of thousands of objectionable sites, so you can see the limitations of this procedure. A better approach is to categorize sites using the definitions discussed above. The category approach allows a teacher to specify whole sets or types of web sites to be blocked. Usually, the filters (special sets of exclusion rules) used by these software programs come pre-programmed, although some allow customization.

While it is obvious that the category approach is much more functional, it relies on each web site developer to accurately categorize the material contained on their site. In general, it is probably safe in assuming that most developers of objectionable sites want access to minors to be blocked--to avoid controversy, lawsuits, etc. However, that may not always be true--pedophiles, some political extremists, and others might want to lure children to their sites. So while the software mentioned below do a pretty good job of blocking access, they do not replace common sense supervision.

Many of the following programs have "light" or demonstration versions which are distributed freely on the Internet. Usually the full-featured version will be for sale. Also keep in mind that most newer web-browsers have a limited form of filtering and blocking integrated right into them.

Common Sense Safety Rules   

You may want to print out the following and post it near your computer(s). Review these rules with your students and make sure they understand the rules.    

  1. I will not give out personal information such as my address, telephone number, parent's work address/telephone number, or the name and location of my school without my parent's permission.
  2. I will tell an adult right away if I come across any information that makes me feel uncomfortable.
  3. I will never agree to get together with someone I "meet" online without first checking with my parents. If my parents agree to the meeting, I will be sure that it is in a public place and bring my mother or father along.
  4. I will never send a person my picture or anything else without first checking with my parents.
  5. I will not respond to any messages that are mean or in any way make me feel uncomfortable. It is not my fault if I get a message like that. If I do, I will tell my parents right away so that they can contact the online service.
  6. I will talk with my parents so that we can set up rules for going online, time of day that I can be online, the length of time I can be online, and appropriate areas for me to visit. I will not access other areas or break these rules without their permission.

Internet Lessons version 1.5. Copyright of lessons (C) 1999 by Joseph A. Erickson, All Rights Reserved. Permission Granted for Individual Usage.

If you plan to distribute multiple copies of this work, please contact the author.


*_<--Back to Internet Lessons Index