Virginia Schools To Teach Internet Safety

By Jason Lee Miller - Wed, 04/09/2008 - 12:08pm.

First lesson: Creeps lie

In an effort to prepare children and teens for the potential stranger danger on the Internet, Virginia is the first state to make Internet safety classes for all grade levels.

It's hard being first and one might imagine all 49 pairs of eyes (assuming one set of eyes per state, of course) will be on Virginia to see how educators implement the program, the messages used, and the methods by which the program is evaluated.

According to Virginia-based WDBJ7.com, the state attorney general warned a group of high school students by showing what appeared to be the social networking profile of a 15 year-old girl, but was actually a 31-year-old serial child molester currently serving a 45-year prison term.

A half century in jail maybe fine in Virginia, but down on the bayou they're considering castration as an option for dealing with guys like that. It'll be fun to see who complains.

Otherwise, it seems pretty clear that other states will follow Virginia's educational objectives, if not exactly their sentencing protocols. One day, Internet safety classes will be as normal as driver's ed and drug abuse counseling, complete with state cops (and attorney generals these days) telling the most gruesome stories they can pull from their lemon squeezers.

(In my day, after watching a video reel where Pinocchio becomes unstrung by sniffing glue, a state trooper regaled us destined for delinquency 10-year-olds with tales of corroded nostrils and PCP-fueled bare-knuckles jail-cell brick removal. And then there was the little boy that got his head cut off….Sort of makes you long for the days when adults tried to scare you with fairy tales instead of actual events.)

News Tags: Technology, Social Media, Internet Safety, Virginia, Education

About the author:
Jason Lee Miller is a WebProNews editor and writer covering business and technology.

Comments

Submitted by Luke Gilkerson (WPN reader) on Mon, 04/21/2008 - 1:05pm.

Covenant Eyes

As Virginia sees the importance of educating teens and parents about Internet safety, it is more important that parents take the need for this seriously: be informed, be involved. I urge parents to take advantage of the helpful resources out there about Internet safety. A little knowledge goes along way.

For more information on children's Internet safety, check out some of these blog posts. I'd love to hear your comments:

1. Safety Tips for Parents: http://www.covenanteyes.com/blog/2008/03/25/a-parents-guide-to-internet-safety-for-children/

2. Online Predators: http://www.covenanteyes.com/blog/2008/04/03/protecting-kids-online-the-myths-and-realities-of-online-predators/

3. Cyberbullying: http://www.covenanteyes.com/blog/2008/04/07/cyberbullying-the-new-playground/

Have you heard of Covenant Eyes monitoring and filtering programs? It is a unique program on the market because it gives the user flexibility to filter or simply monitor the Internet or both. A good filtering program is very helpful for children and families, but a good monitoring program is great for adults and children alike who want to be accountable to others about where they go online.

Covenant Eyes monitoring program simply tracks (without blocking) everywhere someone goes online. Then each part of each webpage is rated and scored for its content (scores are based on obscene or pornographic material). Users choose 2 or 3 people that they want to receive a detailed "accountability report" of all their online activity (emails to them or available to see online 24/7). What this does is it allows complete freedom to the person using the Internet, but it takes away the anonymity of online activity; people are more likely to exorcise self-control when they know that others will be reviewing their whereabouts online.

Covenant Eyes also has a promotional code you can use to get a free month to try out their accountability service. Go to www.covenanteyes.com and enter promocode 'onefree' to receive a free 30 day trial of the program.

Submitted by not a fan of Virginia Plan (WPN reader) on Sun, 04/13/2008 - 9:42am.

va internet every year for every kid

Internet education as normal as drivers ed? Interesting comparison. Drivers ed has been completely phased OUT of schools in my state and the states near me. Too much of a drain on school resources, so they are contracting it out to fly by night companies which are difficult to schedule with. Kids have to wait forever to get the afterschool driving experience. And they can test out of the three week class if they read the drivers handbook and pass an easy test.

On the other hand, teaching internet safety EVERY YEAR is complete overkill......I can't imagine what they are going to say NEW to each year of children. The kids will hear the same thing year after year and will soon be tuning it all out. Better to just let the teachers incorporate admonishments and instruction into their regular lessons. Our schools are overloaded as is. When we add in blocks for internet classes, we have to take something else out. I see kids learning less and less academic material in VA when this comes in.......with all the new programs about so many peripherals, who has time to teach math anymore? Very few schools

Submitted by Ryan Lee Kempf (WPN reader) on Wed, 04/09/2008 - 4:10pm.