Today’s online safety feature is the bNetS@avvy website which “provides up-to-date information about online trends and behavior, and offers practical cyber safety tools for use in the home and the classroom.” Their goal is to “help parents and educators guide children towards the safe and savvy use of social technology.” Let’s check them out …
bNetS@avvy is brought to us by the National Education Association Health Information Network (HEAHIN) in partnership with Sprint, and with editorial review by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Here you can find helpful information and further resources on:
We particularly like their “What You Need to Know” section, which succinctly provides very helpful background to understanding “what the tweens and teens in your life are talking about – and doing – on computers, mobile phones, interactive gaming devices and other wireless technology.” You can quickly get a feel for Who’s Online?, What are they Doing?, Are there Gender Diferences?, How Young is too Young?, and What’s an Adult to Do? (it’s increasingly their world … but we’re still the adults here). And, if you want to learn more about the facts and statistics, they provide helpful links to some of the most recent research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and the Kaiser Family Foundation. We appreciate the overall philosophy that while today’s youth “have an intuition when it comes to tech culture and learning new games and programs” that often eludes adults and can create a “gap in techno-intuition,” parents and educators are still critical in guiding today’s Net Generation in their use of technology:
“Monitoring activities, teaching social etiquette and developing dialogue about a child’s interests and activities online is an important part of our job as adults, at home and in the classroom (emphasis added). What today’s parents and teachers lack in tech experience, they have in life experience. Applying traditional life skills, manners and safety practices to online activities is necessary to help today’s young people become responsible digital adults.”
As the site notes, the stories, tools and tips throughout the site are designed to help connect with the young teens in your life and stay savvy about their online experiences, so you can help them stay safer online.
What you won’t find on this website
If you are looking for downloadable “Fact Sheets,” “Handouts,” “Checklists,” and the like, you will need to look elsewhere (see our blog on the Cyberbullying Research Center), at least as of going to press (072210).
What you will find
But, if you are looking for informed, well-written, “easily digested” information on the current hot topics, then this is the site for you. Everything is presented in a way that encourages adults to (re)connect and collaborate, “get involved,” with young people in learning about online safety and digital citizenship. Furthermore, through the “Ask the Experts” section, you have access to advice from some of the “big guns” in this field, such as Sharon Cindrich of Plugged in Parent, Anne Collier of Net Family News, Nancy Willard of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use and others. Now that’s Savvy!
Thu, Jul 22, 2010
Problem Solvers and Solutions, Reviews: Books, Websites, Curricula, Videos