Internet Safety for Teachers and Students

From the experience gained in many years of working with the use of the Internet in education CIESE has come to the realization that it is important to balance protecting students with the need to utilize the technology to its full potential. For these reasons, rather than advocating policies that completely restrict students and teachers in regards to the content of their web sites, we advocate the following:

Acceptable Use Policies (AUP) - These are basically "contracts" that outline how students can use the technology, what they cannot do with it and the consequences for violating the policy. These should include school web pages and the content that is allowed on them. AUPs should be signed by an authorized representative of the school, students and parents so that all concerned parties are aware of the policy.

No Student Names - We recommend that when referring to students on a web page that either their names not be used or only their first names be posted. Some schools have found the use of "nicknames" to be an effective way of dealing with this issue.

Student Pictures - Although we do encourage the posting of student work that may include student pictures, we strongly encourage teachers to get written permission to post student pictures and work before placing it onto the web. We have found that most schools already have such permission slips for use when student pictures are placed in newspapers. These can often be re-worded to cover the issue of posting to the web.

School or Classroom Web Pages - It is important that teachers and students recognize that a web site that refers to their school or district represents them in cyberspace just as a school newsletter or yearbook represents the school in their community. Because of this they need to respect the interests of the schools system and post only appropriate materials to the web site. What is "appropriate" regarding content should be clearly defined in the schools AUP .

If you would like to get more details on this topic you can visit the following web sites:

• Safe Kids Online -- A terrific resource that includes the article "Child Safety on the Information Highway," rules for online safety, links for kids, parents, teachers, and much more.
• Parents' Guide to the Internet -- U.S. Department of Education website with lots of information and resources.
• Librarian's Guide to Cyberspace for parents and kids -- Definitions, safety tips, help for parents.
• A Parents' Guide to the Internet -- Complete text of this book available online (look under Table of Contents) as well as site reviews and other important safety information
• The Children's Partnership -- Rules and tools for students and families online as well as facts and analysis about how the Information Society affects kids.
• Acceptable Use Policies -- A collection of educational articles about the internet and how to keep young students protected.
• Critiquing Acceptable Use Policies --A critique of Acceptable Use Policies with many interesting links.
• Acceptable Use Policies ( English - Spanish REQUIRES Adobe Acrobat ) -- Policies which school districts in California are formulating in dealing with children using the internet.
• Child Safe Web-Surfing - Great information on making the web safe for kids
• GetNetWise - guides and child-safe internet links
• CyberSmart - Free K-8 Internet safety curriculum including lesson plans and activities for students

Links to Sites with Internet Safety Software

• Bess Internet Filtering for Schools -- Bess filters are designed to block sexually explicit or otherwise objectionable Internet sites before they get on a student's workstation. This is a server-based solution that provides schools with ongoing filter services.
• Internet Filter -- The Internet Filter is a program that monitors, filters, analyzes, and logs internet access. You can download a free demo from this site.
• NetNanny -- It operates quietly in the background, carefully screening out user defined 'Words', 'Phrases', and content that you have determined are inappropriate.
• Cyberpatrol -- provides basic Internet filtering of pornographic material and an unmodifiable subset of the CyberNOT list which includes the following categories: Violence/Profanity; Partial Nudity/Art; Full Nudity; Sexual Acts/Texts and Gross Depictions. Updates to these categories are automatically downloaded every 7 days.
• Other Teacher/Parent Control Software -- Listing of other control software and filtered Internet service providers.
• Reviews of Safe-Surf Programs: CNET reviews 3 online filtering programs --C|NET reviews three internet filtering programs