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When I was in school, I don’t recall talking about cyber safety much. Most of the adults in my life have viewed younger generations as more skillful than themselves when it comes to technology, so that leads me to think that they assumed we knew what we were doing when it came to staying safe online. I personally have not had any sort of cyber safety incidents, so I think I’m doing an alright job for myself.

I think a lot of what I learned about cyber safety when I was young came from my parents. I remember my mom always being worried about me playing those old Facebook games like FarmVille and MiniPlanet. (I just read MiniPlanet might be coming back?!) but I never really listened to her worries. I probably should have, but I never experienced anything scary or worrisome.

I do remember seeing a lot of commercials on TV about this topic when I was a kid. The commercials almost always had a creepy vibe that made its main point to basically just stay off the internet. There was one commercial that I remember that I think had the best message out the of the bunch, Protect Children Internet Safety PSA. This commercial’s message is to use the internet safely by blocking creeps that you come across. This was an okay message for the times, but as we know know blocking people doesn’t do much when you can just create a new account.

I think the best approach to staying safe on the internet is to always use common sense, trust your gut, and just avoid the sites that seem sketchy. I know all this is easier said than done obviously, but that is why is it important to inform our future students on the dangers that can come with being online. Even if we think they know it, reminders are always a good thing!

Thanks for reading!