GENTRY — Both students and parents had opportunity last week to learn more about online safety and about cyberbullying and what to do about it. Carol Robinson, from the Arkansas Attorney General’s office, spoke at a community meeting Thursday night and to each school on Friday.
Using a PowerPoint presentation, Robinson drove home her points with examples of the sad and sometimes tragic results of abuse channelled over the Internet.
She warned of online predators and cautioned students against ever sharing personal information online or engaging in online conversations with people they don’t know.
She also spoke of cyberbullying through various online social media and text messages and sharedthe consequences which have sometimes resulted - including embarrassment, ridicule, suicide, suspension and expulsion from school, and criminal charges.
Robinson told students never to share online or via text messages photographs or information about themselves they wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing with their parents, family members or teachers because once it’s shared, they have no control over where it may be shared, posted or published.
Basic safety tips offered by Robinson included:
◊Never give out personal information to anyone online;
◊Remember that anything shared online becomes public;
◊Don’t send photographs or communicate with people not personally known;
◊Never assume online contacts are really who they claim to be;
◊Never agree to a face-to-face meeting with someone met online;
◊Don’t respond to unkind or threatening messages; and
◊If someone is making you feel uncomfortable or in danger, tell a parent or trusted adult.
In addition, the follow ing “Keys to Online Safety” are available on the Arkansas Attorney General’s website:
Signs that your child might be "at risk" online include the following:
◊Your child spends large amounts of time online, espe cially at night.
◊You find pornography on your child's computer.
◊Your child receives phone calls from adults who you don't know or your child makes calls, sometimes long distance, to numbers you don't recognize.
◊Your child receives mail, gifts or packages from some one you don't know.
◊Your child turns the computer monitor off or quickly changes the screen on the monitor when you come into the room.
◊Your child becomes withdrawn from the family.
◊Your child is using an online account belonging to some one else.
What can you do to minimize the chances of an online predator victimizing your child?
◊Talk to your child about sexual victimization and the potential of online danger.
◊Spend time with your children online. Have them teach you about the Internet.
◊Keep the computer in a common room of the house, not in your child's bedroom.
◊Utilize parental controls available from your service provider or use blocking software.
◊Always maintain access to your child's online account and randomly check email.
◊ Teach your children the responsible use of the resources online.
◊Find out the computer safeguards being utilized at your child's school, the public library and at the homes of your child's friends.
◊Understand that if your child comes in contact with an online predator, it is not the child's fault. The child is the victim.
What should you tell your child to do if they come in contact with a cyber-bully?
◊Take five - don't reply in anger.
◊Stop, block and tell - don't reply, block the sender, tell someone.
◊Save the message and show a trusted adult.
◊Be a friend - if they know of someone who is being cyberbullied, let someone know.
Instruct your children to follow these rules:
◊Be private - keep passwords, pictures and secrets to yourself.
◊Remind your children never to arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone they first met online.
◊Teach your children not to post anything over the Internet that they wouldn't want others to see.
◊Help them remember that people they meet online aren't always who they say they are.
◊Let your children know that they shouldn't say anything online that they would not say in public.
◊Tell them not to respond to messages that are inappropriate or make them feel uncomfortable in any way.
◊Encourage your children to come to you if they encounter a problem online.
Also instruct your children to follow these rules:
◊Never arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone they met online.
◊Never post pictures of them selves on the Internet.
◊Never give out identifying information such as name, ad dress or phone number.
◊Never download pictures from an unknown source. They could be explicit.
◊Never respond to messages or postings that are suggestive, obscene or harassing.
◊Never automatically assume that what they are told online is the truth.
News, Pages 7 on 08/29/2012