1. Internet Safety @ Home HS PTA Presentation – 23 November 2006

2. The Essential Question How do we the digital immigrants understand, participate in, and monitor the world of our digital native children to ensure their safety?

3. Today’s Agenda Your children are “Digital Natives” - what does that mean? What are your children doing on the internet? Is it safe out there? What can you do to keep your child safe? Questions & (hopefully) Answers

4. Your children are ‘wired’ differently The Visual cortex in the brain of the kids today is 15% larger than of kids 10 years ago. They process information differently. They are DIGITAL NATIVES.

5. Digital Natives Anyone born after 1985 is a digital native. Personal computers are already 10 years old.

6. In Their Lifetimes 1990 - Tim Berners-Lee writes World Wide Web program 1990 1996 - Palm pilots go on the market… computing becomes mobile 1999 - Sean Fanning, creates Napster… suddenly everyone is sharing 2002 - the iPod is unveiled 2006

7. And now… 1997-2005 has brought us: Blogs Wikis YouTube Social networking Do you know what these are? Your children do.

8. Digital Natives Your children are not us. The average college graduate now Has spent less than 5,000 hours reading Has spent more than 10,000 hours playing video games Has spent 20,000 hours watching T.V. E-mail is old-technology to them How does knowing this impact what we do?

9. What are your children doing? School work Word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, simulations Research Socializing MySpace – social networking Sharing files (torrents) – music, videos Meeting people Dating Downloading Gaming Virtual worlds Passing time Online Gambling Exploring Interests/Questions Appropriate and inappropriate content

10. Is it safe out there? What to look out for: Pornography Online Predators Cyber-bullying Online Gambling

11. What can you do to keep them safe? Talk with them Be open about what concerns you and what types of content you don’t want them viewing Ask them what they do when they are online Speak to them about what kind of information they and others share online Establish some rules or guidelines about time and/or what they do

12. What can you do to keep them safe? Control access Where is the computer? How much time are they allowed? Can you disconnect them, if necessary?

13. Stronger Measures Filter Software “Content Provider” – endorsed by Disney and reviewed highly by Top Ten reviews: US$40 per year K9 Web Protection from Blue Coat, supplier to Fortune 500 companies so for homes it’s Free! Keep in mind that filter software is not perfect

14. From “Do You Know Where Your Kids are Clicking”, by Alan Cohen, PC Magazine, July 2006.

15. Some other priorities The real world is worth participating in too Remind your children about being a human being – balancing their lives The electronic world can be pretty consuming Balance requires that they sleep, eat, exercise and leave their rooms to thrive

16. And finally… Remember that soon enough they will be on their own Work with them to become smart, responsible, safe web participants EVERYTHING will change even more in the coming years!

17. Questions?