Internet Safety
Your Task:
You must be able to know how to be safe on the internet. This includes knowing what is reliable, what is false, when it is not secure, what danger signs are.
You must be able to know how to be safe on the internet. This includes knowing what is reliable, what is false, when it is not secure, what danger signs are.
Practice:
Watch this BrainPopJr. Video on Internet Safety.
What is Personal Information?
Personal information is any information that can be used to identify you or find out where you are. This includes obvious things like your full name and address, and some less-obvious things like your car's license plate number or what sport you play at school.
How do I know what I can share?
Ask yourself these questions:
If I answered 'no' to each of those, what can I share?
With all this information that is not safe to share online, you might be wondering if there anything left that is safe to share. Sometimes it's just a matter of not telling the whole story. For example:
Security:
When you are just looking around on a website the URL (address) probably begins with Http://, meaning the site is using Hypertext Transfer Protocol, but it does not have an added security layer.
When you switch to a purchasing mode on the same site, go to a banking site, or go to any site where you are going to share financial or sensitive personal information that URL should change to begin with Https://.
Test this URL change out on a few sites you are familiar with:
Red Flags and Advertisements:
If a website, advertisement, or email, says that you have won a prize... you didn't. Unless you know that you entered into a raffle, don't click on it. It is a scam!
Watch this BrainPopJr. Video on Internet Safety.
What is Personal Information?
Personal information is any information that can be used to identify you or find out where you are. This includes obvious things like your full name and address, and some less-obvious things like your car's license plate number or what sport you play at school.
How do I know what I can share?
Ask yourself these questions:
- Can this information be used to locate or identify me offline?
- Can this information make it easier for someone to cyberbully me, hack my accounts or steal my identity?
- Would I want this information to show up in a search engine's results for my name?
- Is this something I wouldn't want my grandparent or teacher to see?
- Is this information that someone could use against me in some way?
- Is this information that only a few people should know?
- Is this information that would help someone guess my password?
- Would this information give someone the wrong impression about me?
- Is it going to be a problem if I can't take this information back?
If I answered 'no' to each of those, what can I share?
With all this information that is not safe to share online, you might be wondering if there anything left that is safe to share. Sometimes it's just a matter of not telling the whole story. For example:
- Share your favorite band, but not which concert you have tickets for
- Share your pet's name, but not which park you take him to
- Share your favorite food, but not which restaurant you go to all the time
- Share what sports you play, but not what team you play for
- Share which books you have read, but not which library is near your house
- Share your opinion, but not if it's going to hurt someone's feelings or offend someone
- Share a funny picture of a squirrel, but not a picture of you acting squirrelly
Security:
When you are just looking around on a website the URL (address) probably begins with Http://, meaning the site is using Hypertext Transfer Protocol, but it does not have an added security layer.
When you switch to a purchasing mode on the same site, go to a banking site, or go to any site where you are going to share financial or sensitive personal information that URL should change to begin with Https://.
Test this URL change out on a few sites you are familiar with:
- Notice on shopping sites when the security layer is added on (when you get asked to enter sensitive information), and when it goes off again (if you just go back to browsing around).
- Notice on your bank’s site that the security layer is always in place.
Red Flags and Advertisements:
If a website, advertisement, or email, says that you have won a prize... you didn't. Unless you know that you entered into a raffle, don't click on it. It is a scam!
The general rule of thumb:
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
If you click on one on accident. What do you do?
Leave the site immediately. Delete your tracking cookies from the settings. Run an antivirus scan to ensure that you didn't pick up a virus.
How do I submit?
Discuss with a next-door partner about what you've learned.
Leave the site immediately. Delete your tracking cookies from the settings. Run an antivirus scan to ensure that you didn't pick up a virus.
How do I submit?
Discuss with a next-door partner about what you've learned.
- What can you do to be safe?
- Why is it important?