The
priority for all e-safety training is safeguarding the privacy of young
tech users. Creating pseudonym user names and using avatar profile
pictures all go some way to making sure that pre-teens cannot be
targeted by those seeking to take advantage of a youngsters lack of
experience. It is for this same reason that all social network sites
used by adults have minimum age policy for users to be at least 13.
Although it is not law in this country the US COPPA regulations state a
website must gain parental consent when seeking to gain personal details
from anyone below that age. This should mean that pre-teens can explore
all that the internet has to offer safe in the knowledge that as long
as they do not post personal information they can not be targeted.
But
e-safety education should not just be about what others can take from
you, but also that you must not take from others. That this anonymity is
a shield to protect you, but not one to hide behind whilst hurling the
sticks and stones of cyber bullying and online abuse. Online etiquette
is as much a part of e-safety training as protecting your personal
information. Ensure that when discussing e-safety with children you
spend as much time on online etiquette as you do on protecting privacy,
teaching them that interacting online is still interacting with another
person with the same feelings that they have. Just because they can not
see the other person, who will also mostly likely also be using a
pseudonym and avatar, that they realise that person is real. If a young
user believes that their anonymity gives them the right to act with
impunity, it will set a dangerous precedent for their adult tech use.
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