Internet safety- what's the worst that can happen? Quite possibly, nothing.
Before we all jump out of our seats and scream, think about nothing for just a minute. What happens if a child leaves the book closed instead of opening it? What happens if we decide not to get out of bed in the morning? What would happen if everyone stopped trying, just because they were afraid of what might happen? Nothing. Well, maybe something, but that something is not likely to be much better.
The biggest danger with the internet might just be if people like you and I concentrated on the pitfalls instead of highlighting the benefits. The internet is too powerful and too pertinent a tool to let go untapped. This doesn't mean that we must simply sit idle while our students probe blindly into the unknown; rather, we must be armed to take on the risks, and help our young ones learn to arm themselves, too.
If we are going to pass on responsible, safe practices to our students, our first priority should be to impart a sense of digital citizenship to them. According to the 9 Elements of Digital Citizenship (http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html), the first (and possibly most important) element here is that of etiquette. These 9 factors should be presented to our students as guidelines whenever they go online, inside of school or out.
Another helpful resource can be found here: http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/teachers/ . This site brings out great points we should focus on, from safety (how do we teach kids to tell if a site is safe?) to facts (can they tell the difference between credible sites?)
With a little patience, we can find all of the knowledge we need to succeed in keeping our students up-to-date and safe, using the tool we know works: the internet. Why would we want to consider sheltering our students from the very tool we use most, and the same tool they will use when they get home, when we could use this opportunity to teach them the correct way they should approach this wonder of technology? Let's help our students learn to make something out of nothing.
Related articles/sites:
http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/internet-safety-and-security-what-teachers-need-to-know
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/02/26/study-too-few-schools-are-teaching-cyber-safety/
