When I was growing up, so was the internet. I remember using dial up at the farm. (who else has the dial tone engraved in their brain?) I remember MSS messenger. I remember facebook starting. I remember the old snapchat. I remember Instragram starting. I grew up when cellphones were starting to show up at school. I remember I got facebook and other apps but hid it from my parents because I was worried they would make me stop going on it. Not that what I was doing was bad. But more they just didn’t understand the internet and were intimidated by its potential. We didnt know what internet safety looked like, but we were young and dumb on the internet. I remember my friends talking about getting together and going on sites like “Omegale” and talking to others. It was evident that their parents didn’t know. Stuff like this terrified me. But I was on the outs because I didn’t do stuff like this.  Growing up with the interenet was tough.

We were definitley showed “cyber Safety” in a scare tactic way. I actually was in highschool when the Amanda Todd videos were being shared. I think it was one of our assignments to recreate that exact same type of video, telling some form of a story about ourselves… I can’t fully remember. But I do know that it became a trend amongst teenagers and schools. Teachers used it as a tool to show the importance of cyber safety.

I also remember our health teacher at the time making us write PAGES of notes about cyber safety. She would put up the notes and all we would do is copy them. Was this effective? No. I know there were videos and commercials that the teachers shared as well. The one I vividly remember about cyber bullying is the boy in the hallway of the school and the words are hitting him and hurting him. Showing that the impact of words online still hurt us. Or the “If you wouldn’t say it in person, you shouldn’t say it” videos. Who else remembers these videos?Mean girls also came out when we were in school. This was an important milestone, no it wasn’t cyber bullying. But it was watched by EVERYONE. We knew what bullying was… and some what the impact it had on others. But at the time we never really understood cyber bullying and the impact it has on others.

Teachers in highschool would also scare us by saying stuff like “watch what you put on the internet or you might not get a job because of it..” OR “this follows you forever so don’t do it…” But it was never explained in detail. Or the teachers and parents would say stuff like “There are creepy old men on there that will try and talk to you or get your address and come to your house” Which is fair, the teachers at the time didn’t really know what they were informing us on. One thing I remember talking about though, and it has stuck with me foever, is one teacher said to us never to post a picutre where you can tell what the background is. Like never post a picture with your school name behind you. That was how predators found us. So that scared the crap out of me and I NEVER to this day do that. lol

I never did think how we learned about internet safety was effective. All children/teenagers wanted was to explore the internet. We wanted what everyone else had, so we made that happen. Whether it was public knowledge or sneakily.

Its hard to say what would be more effective. I know I was scared of the internet. I know that essentially I was scared to believe certain things about the internet. So I guess for me it was effective. What I wish is that we were shown proper ways to use the internet. Maybe if a teacher had went through what their facebook looked like at the time? Or something like that? I wish they hadn’t put such a bad air around the internet. It is s such a cool way to connect to people. Or I wish they showed us the impact of how quickly information can be spread around the internet, but not in a scary way. Scared doesn’t equal winning. Scared means we are doing things uninformed.