Internet Safety Reflection

NOTES:
*****795000000-- population of those interacting with cyberspace
20 % feel safer online than in the real world
50% identify anonymity with freedom online
81% spend at least 1 hr online a week
risky behavior online (giving personal info) increases with age
* Porn pages-- 270,000,000
90% of 8-16 have viewed pornography online, mostly unintentionally
* Companies target kids with pop-up ads and purchase domain names (typo squatting) to intentionally deceive= Truth and Domain Law
20% of children's sites allow gambling ads
* Hate sites are showing up faster than pornography sites and are meant to attract kids.
50% of high schoolers plagiarized from the internet in 2001
30% of kids say it is easier to chat online than in person. 15% have recieved mean or hateful messages.
* Cyber-bullying-- "the new bathroom wall..." with sometimes deadly consequences of murder or suicide
* Cyber Predation

* Educators might be in a better position than parents to know what kids are doing on the internet!

I chose to read Elder Bednar's talk "Things as They Really Are." We also watched the video about the stats of the internet-- it also discussed cyber-bullying and -predation, and how involved kids are with the internet.
My most important realizations from the talk and the movie were that technology is everywhere, critical to our lives today, and an amazing tool for good or evil. It is not a question as to whether or not we will use it; it is a question of how we will use it. Kids need it, especially if we are going to teach them effectively. Hence, we need to learn how to use the internet safely and responsibly, and teach our kids how to do the same. There is no avoiding it, so we need to make the most of it and educate our kids.
I talked to my brother and mum about the "doing" experience-- both my mum and brother had read the talk, and had thought a bit about it. Our family is not way into the technology scene, so it kind of surprised them but the agree with it, as do I. I think this has helped me, my brother, and my mum think how we need to be more educated about technology and especially the internet so we can teach others and so we don't run into something stupid ourselves. It really made us think about how we need to use all this technology, and especially use it in a positive way.