To start off, I never thought that I was being unsafe on the internet. However, after learning about safety I realized that not every site I go on is a secure site. That was the most important thing I learned about the internet. I have always been one to put my personal information on any site that asks for it. I never stop to think that my information can be in jeopardy or that someone would want to abuse that information. Call it naivete but its the truth.
As a result of wanting to be more safe on the internet, I have changed my facebook settings, my e-mail settings, and my bank account settings. I am now much more aware of what is and isn't a safe place to be sharing personal information. I am glad we had this lesson so I can protect myself better over the internet.
I chose to teach my mother about internet safety since she sometimes lives in the caveman ages and has no idea how to use a computer, cell phone, or internet. I mean she just got her very first cell phone, and she is learning how to text. . SCARY! When I called her, I started with what to look for if you need to know if a website is secure or not. After explaining it to her, she told me she thought that the bank she was using did not have a secure site. We looked together and it does but it did scare her that she could have potentially been sharing private information with dishonest people. I also taught her about what to look for in emails and how to know if you should open them or not. We talked about how to add contact details so that you know when you have sent information to a person or if she wanted to recognize email addresses from people she knows. Finally, we talked about how to make her blog, and our family website secure so that only peolple (such as our immediate family) can look at the site. It was fun to teach my madre about internet safety and help her understand how to keep herself and our family safe.
The internet safety tips that I have learned about would apply to all my future students at different ages. I think it is important that they be educated about how to be safe on the internet especially since all of them will probably be assoiciated with face book, my space, have email accounts, and chat in chat rooms. I hope to be helpful in helping them learn internet safety.
