Parents & Kids

Online Resources for Parents, Educators, and Kids

For Children

• Let Me Know (LMK): Life Online is a new interactive webpage for teens from Girl Scouts and Windows offering excellent pages on Privacy, Mobile Devices, Social Networking, Cybersecurity and more. Check into Girls Speak Up for articles on current privacy issues written by the site’s teen editors.
• The FTC offers You Are Here, a virtual mall webpage designed for kids from 5^th grade to 8^th grade and parents and educators.  Visitors can play games, design ads, chat with customers and store owners, and learn key consumer concepts, such as how advertising affects you, how you benefit when businesses compete, how (and why) to protect your information, and how to spot scams. Make sure to Visit the Security Plaza to learn about protecting your privacy (online and off), and protect the citizens of Earth against identity-stealing invaders.
• Netsmartz offers NetSmartzKids with activities perfect for younger children.

For Parents

• Check out “Facebook Privacy Settings: What Parents Need to Know” recently offered by Common Sense Media.  CSM provides an instructional video for parents with a supporting article, explaining that “you can help your kids protect their privacy by making sure they use their privacy settings. Every time Facebook introduces new privacy controls, you’ll need to update your settings”.

• Microsoft offers “Online Safety and Privacy Education,” which offers tips and guidance about protecting your family, protecting yourself, and protecting your computer.

• Common Sense Media offers two new privacy resources: a white paper on Digital Literacy and Citizenship in the 21^st Century offering a vision for the education that kids, parents, and teachers need to thrive in a world dominated by digital media and new technologies; and Tech Talk: Beyond Internet Safety.

Take time to explore the many educational materials offered by Common Sense Media: A video directed to parents about teens’ privacy online; Tips for Protecting Personal Privacy Online; a video that teaches parents how to create a Facebook page and learn more about social networking; information and helpful videos about kids at every developmental stage from pre-K through high school, addressing the many ways kids are interacting and sharing information online; and materials and resources categorized by topic, including social networking and virtual worlds, consumerism, and mobile and communicating, among others.

• The American Academy of Pediatrics News Room offers “Talking to Kids and Teens about Social Media and Sexting.”  The AAP provides age-appropriate advice about talking with your kids about using good judgment with respect to the information and images they share online.
• Data Protection Day 2010 offers privacy information for parents.
• FTC’s Guidance on Privacy
• Facts about Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act from the FTC
• Children’s Online Privacy: A Resource Guide for Parents by Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
• Aol offers safetyclicks, a resource dedicated to privacy and safety issues for online families. Safetyclicks features a Parent Guide as well as privacy information of interest to Kids & Teens. In addition, the webpage allows you to search for articles by topic: social networking, sharing info online, sexting and technology, among others.
• Do you wonder how parents should communicate to their kids about the need for privacy in social networking?  Visit OSU’s Buckeye Secure webpage to view “Communicating Social Networking Privacy to Children.”
• Common Sense Media offers Managing Kids’ Search Queries: What Parents Need to Know, January 8, 2010.  CSM review the results of a recent Norton Family Online survey of Tope 100 searches for kids under 18, and offers age-appropriate guidance about helping kids learn to navigate the Internet with privacy and security in mind.

For Educators and Parents

• Microsoft offers a Security Powerpoint Presentation with an accompanying script to enable presentations about important privacy and security issues.  Review Protect: Your Computer, Your Family and Yourself for guidance on how to protect your privacy.  Microsoft also provides a guide to consumer education, a poster, and the materials that will help you organize and conduct an online privacy and safety event for consumers.  The guide contains an overview of online safety for individuals and families who use computers and other devices that connect to the Web, and it is designed for concerned parents, community members, staff members of government representatives, companies and non-governmental organizations. The guide also contains modules for parents’ nights, school assemblies, internet safety fairs, community online safety seminars and more.

• The FTC offers Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids about Being Online — FTC offers a guide for parents with practical tips to help kids navigate the online world.  The guide encourages parents to reduce the risks by talking to kids about how they communicate – online and off – and helping kids engage in conduct they can be proud of.  Net Cetera covers what parents need to know, where to go for more information, and issues to raise with kids about living their lives online.  Parents can download this guide, and educators can order free copies of the guide from the FTC to distribute in their classrooms.
• Media Awareness Network offers Kids for Sale: Online Privacy and Marketing to Kids and a number of prepared lessons regarding privacy for educators to use with students of varying ages.  To access the prepared materials, go to the For Teachers page and enter privacy as the subject where prompted within The Lesson Library.
• Project PRO: Privacy & Reputation Online, provided by ikeepsafe and American School Counselor Association, offers educational videos for educators, teens and parents as well as curricular resources all designed to help students nationwide understand the importance of privacy, security and online reputation.  The Sky is the Limit is a guide for parents designed to encourage the development of critical thinking skills in young people about the ways they use technologies to communicate and about online reputation.  The Support Curricula and Resources, entitled “Digital Reputation: How to Protect and Manage your Online Reputation,” provides an excellent guide for educators.
• Cisco offers Cyberspace Action for Education which provides educational materials for families, teachers and digital citizens on privacy and cybersecurity.
• Google’s Tips for Online Safety including a video presented by Common Sense Media and Google.
• A Tutorial for parents and teachers on privacy by Truste (PDF 2.10MB)

Informative Articles and Reports

• Google requires all those who sign up for Google accounts to be at least 13 years old.  However, for kids 13 and up and for those who may be using gmail anyway, Buzz raises privacy issues.  Google Buzz poses a major privacy risk for kids, analyst (and parent) says [Updated]
• “The First E-Mail Address: Raising an Internet Savvy Child” by Adam Rosenberg of the Center for Democracy and Technology
• “How to Hide Your Facebook Friends List” by Larry Magid, Dec. 16, 2009
• “How to Handle Facebook Privacy Settings for Your Kids,” Guest Post by Leslie Harris, CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology
• For teens with cell phones, “sexting” has privacy implications.  On December 15, 2009, the Pew Internet & American Life Project released “Teens and Sexting: How and why minor teens are sending sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images via text messaging.”
• The Internet Safety Technical Task Force presents Enhancing Child Safety & Online Technologies: Final Report of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force to the Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking of State Attorneys General of the United States.

Other Helpful Web Resources

• Connect Safely (guidance offered in English and in Espanol)
• Get Wise About Wireless
• Wired Kids
• Protecting personal information and privacy by Parry Aftab
• Onguard Online (guidance offered in English and in Espanol)
• Web Wise kids for Parents
• Lo Que Hacen Tus Hijos En Internet by Leonardo Cervera

Many of the resources available online for parents and children focus on internet safety as opposed to data privacy.  However, best privacy practices enhance safety, and privacy issues are addressed at many of these sites as well.

Focusing on Safety

• Parry Aftab’s Wired Safety
• Look Both Ways
• National Cyber Security Alliance
• iKeepSafe focusing on younger children and parents
• Netsmartz
• The Beehive – available in English and in Spanish focusing on internet safety
• PTA: Every child. One voice. Offers Safety for Adolescents’ Online Social Networking, which covers many privacy issues as well.

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