Kids today live in a cyber world. Most kids have grown up using the Internet and computers, and they play a large role in their educational, social, and recreational lives.
If kids are not careful, however, they can find themselves prey to the wide range of things online that are not so safe or helpful for them. Predators often lurk in chat rooms online anonymously and lure kids and teens into meeting them. Kids and teens can also find themselves victims of scams if they are not careful and know what to look for.
Whether you are a parent, teacher, law enforcement official, or someone else, if you work with kids, it’s important to be aware of how to keep kids safe online. There are many resources you can use for this. One of these is iSAFE.
iSAFE is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1998 with the purpose of educating people about online safety. It has since grown to become world renown and leading resource for anyone who likes to learn more about online safety.
iSAFE has a number of resources that can help parents, teens, teachers, and so forth learn more about online safety. These include:
iLEARN online
This online learning program is designed exclusively for teachers and educators. It is beneficial because it can be done at the teacher’s own pace and in his or her own time, so they don’t have to take time away from class or spend money on travel to a community outreach or training program. It includes six online videos that go over six subjects educators should know about teaching and promoting online safety to their students. Once you have been trained, you have access to the free iSAFE materials that will help you pass along this valuable information to your students.
iMENTOR
This program is designed for teens. iMentors are students in grades 5-12 who promote online safety to their peers and family members. Students who wish to be i-MENTORS will take a series of online training modules. Upon completion, they are then trained and certified as i-Mentors. The i-Mentor program provides a number of resources to students who are committed to promoting online safety to their peers.
Community Outreach
iSAFE’s unique Community Outreach programs take online safety even further by involving those outside the classroom as well. Community leaders, parents, and law enforcement officials can participate in seminars, activities, and events that promote and teach online safety.
iFifty+
While children can fall victim to predators, cyber bullying, and other hazards online, they are not the only ones. Adults too should be educated about online safety to avoid common scams, losing money, and identity theft. Online predators who target adults often do so to try and get their bank accounts and bank on the hopes that their victim is not educated about online safety. iSAFE.org has online modules such as iParent and iFifty+ to help adult computer users learn more about online safety.
iShield
This online module is designed specifically for law enforcement officials. This series of five videos helps to educate those in law enforcement and focuses on the issues that are unique to them. It is ideal because it allows them to work at their own pace online and for free, which is important in departments facing budget cuts.
You can visit iSAFE to learn more about the resources available.