Week 2: What are Children Really Up to when Browsing the Internet?

Reading the articles opened my eyes to the raw statistics of online safety. What really caught me off guard was the article about the children internet usage study! A study of kids in grades 4-8 was conducted to understand their internet usage behavior and how far they sometimes go in engaging in inappropriate or dangerous behavior online. We all know by now the Fortnite craze. Well in this article it stated that 40 percent of these students connected or chatted with a stranger. Mind you this article was published in the year 2016…imagine what percent that might be now?! With Fortnite, kids can talk and play with people from any part of the world! How do I know this? My son plays this game too. And you bet I spoke to him about safety and the importance of never giving out information to strangers but even doing so, we still have to keep an eye out on who they are playing with. Some other alarming statistics were that 53 percent of students revealed their phone number to a complete stranger, 21 percent spoke by phone to a stranger, 30 percent texted a stranger from their phone, and 11 percent met a stranger in their own home, the strangers home, a park, mall or restaurant. That is pretty scary. Educators can only do so much for our student’s online safety. The survey stated that 87 percent of students were taught to use the internet safely! So that just shows us that teachers need support from home to ensure student safety. There are apps out available to block certain websites and see what websites kids are browsing through. Parents have to keep track of everything their child does online so the child thinks twice before engaging in inappropriate online behavior. After reading this article it made me remember to always be on the look-out for what my child is doing online!