Students Need to Learn Internet Safety, Group Says

The No Child Left Behind Act mandates that all children be literate in technology by the time they complete the 8th grade and there has been a lot of progress in that area. As a matter of fact, 96% of school districts across the country report that at least some of their teachers regularly assign homework requiring the student to use the Internet. However, what is lacking is a program that teaches children how to be safe on the internet.

The National Cyber Security Alliance, with the support of such companies as CA, McAfee, Microsoft, and Symantec and organizations including the Consortium of School Networking and, the State Education Technology Directors Association are calling upon the leaders of every state in the union to see to it that lessons in cyber security, safety and ethics lessons and taught in every classroom in the country.

Internet skills are no longer an extra skill. It is a required skill for the students of the 21st century. There is no need to remind the public about the hazards that exist in the internet environment. We see it in the news every day, but young people need to be educated about what to look out for. There are predators on the net who are expert in tricking young people into revealing things like their names, addresses and phone number and that is only one of the risks.

The University of Michigan conducted a poll in May of 2007 that focused on children's health issues and ind internet safety was ranked number seven by the adults questioned.

They are calling for the implementing of cyber educations programs that teach cyber ethics, safety and security (C3) principles. Children must know that they are not as safe on a computer as they think they are. If it is taught in school it will help them realize how important it is and will stop them from being lulled into a false sense of security.

Exactly what do these lessons consist of?

Cyber Ethics Lessons: teach that hacking into someone's
computer and stealing their personal information is just as wrong as breaking into someone else's home. And is punishable by federal law.