I find cyber security a topic which is important for all people to know about starting at a young age. Cyber security in my own words is protecting ourselves and others from online harm and to become aware of certain dangers of being online. It is so easy for anyone to turn on a computer these days, even my three year old nephew knows how to not only turn on an iPad but also how to access his favourite Cocomelon YouTube videos. When I was three years old my household didn’t have any tools to access the internet, it is fascinating how much technology has evolved in the past 20 years.
Growing up in both my elementary and high school, we did not discuss cyber security or digital citizenship. I can remember trying to access certain websites online at my school and not being able to access certain websites because they were restricted. Only the approved sites (which were determined by the school) were able to be accessed and we never spoke about why certain websites were restricted, it was kind of a “don’t ask, don’t tell” situation. Nowadays, there are so many educational websites so how can a school determine what is accessible and what is not without viewing all the websites produced online.
I think this approach towards cyber security absolutely did not work and could never work because people will always find a way to gain access to a restricted website. It made for some rebellious students online since we always wondered “why can’t I see this site” or “I want to see what’s hiding”. Sometimes when students at my school gained access to these restricted sites we found out that there were typically two main reasons why it wasn’t accessible which were:
- the websites were forgotten to be made accessible or
- the websites did not provide PG content
Now, I am not hating on my school for not providing the students with cyber security lessons, I understand that technology and the internet came to be fast so I believe that my schools had our best interests at heart and did they best they could in the time being. With what I know what I do now, I hope to bring more cyber security and digital citizenship awareness into my future classroom and share my knowledge with other educators!
This was an actual error I received while writing this blog post so I had to share the screen which I have been viewing since my childhood, one we all know. (I received this error because my internet crashed ahahaha)
