More than half the children between the ages of 8-16 have published pictures on social media and posted their email address and almost half of them have or will also meet someone from online in person. Bringing children up to model digital citizens will be the ideal thing to do because the kids will be in our shoes one day. Learning how to do things such as private posting or not posting can be taught in schools to help better the children in this digital world that we are living in (Cybermum India, 2017).
Why is it important to teach the topics in school?
-training can be taught according to the age levels
-group learning helps to build social bonds and confidence
-children learn well from teachers
Children should:
-stay informed about cyber security and cyber civics
-know how to identify dangers and tackle them
-learn how to surf in a secure environment
-use the internet to learn and build a network
Topics to include in Cybersecurity Sessions:
Social media; the norms of sharing; the importance of privacy; scams, spam and hacking; block and report accounts; identity fake: profiles, messages and how to authenticate data; dares, challenges and risky games; footprints in the digital sands of time; smartphone safety and financial risks (Cybermum India, 2017).
With the large amount of kids being connected online in this new digital era of life, schools should come to the plan that helps kids stay safe online in this day and time. We all want children to stay safe online and offline but the only way for them to understand how to do it, would be to teach them at home as parents and at school as teachers, almost like teaching kids at home how to wash dishes or how to clean the bathroom and in school like they teach the D.A.R.E program. This can be taught as another session within those types of programs just to keep the children aware because if we don’t tell them then they will not know.
Resource
Cybermum India (2017, November 17). Importance of Cybersecurity Lessons in Schools. McAfee. Retrieved from https://securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/consumer/importance-cybersecurity-lessons-schools/
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