According to one study, 38% of adolescents i can’t imagine life without your smartphone. Almost half are always accessible online. Children and teens are also the most vulnerable and unprepared when it comes to online safety.
As a teacher and authority figure, you are in an excellent position to educate students about online threats and healthy Internet safety habits. This guide addresses the most common threats facing students today. He then offers tips for making cybersecurity topics more interesting to students. Finally, he provides essential safety tips that he should impart to students of all ages.
What threats should students be aware of?
The Internet is fraught with dangers that target the identity, emotional well-being, and even the physical safety of students. Younger students are especially at risk as they are more impulsive and confident. These are the most dangerous threats that you should inform them about.
Phishing and malware
Phishing is a technique used by cybercriminals to gain and exploit someone’s trust. They will send emails or instant messages pretending to be someone the student knows or claiming they have connections to their school, favorite video game, etc.
These messages contain links that take students to dubious sites, often created to look like the real thing. Sites may ask you to enter personal information or download harmful programs.
The latter get installed on your devices and perform unwanted actions like stealing data or making the system unstable. We call this malware. Ransomware is a nasty subset of malware that prevents users from accessing their files if they don’t pay. such attacks increasingly affect schools also.
Cyberbullying and Harassment
Anonymity makes it easy for kids to hurt their peers online. Cyber bullying takes many different forms, from sending someone hurtful messages to humiliating them by posting sensitive information or media about them. It can have long-lasting psychological consequences and be harder to escape than conventional bullying.
online predators
Predators are people who attempt to sexually abuse minors through online means. They often pretend to be the victim’s age to build trust. Once they have obtained it, they can ask the victim to provide explicit content or to meet in person. Teenagers are especially impressionable. They may willingly engage with such individuals in a misguided pursuit of affection.
inappropriate content
While generally less dangerous than the above, exposure to inappropriate content is the hardest to avoid. Such content can range from profanity and harmful ideologies to topics not intended for children and deceptive marketing practices.
How to convey these threats in a kid-friendly way?
Student online safety is serious business. It is also something that they may find boring or may not fully understand if they are younger. As an educator, it is your responsibility to approach the topic in an engaging way.
When you talk about the basics of cybersecurity, do it in an age-appropriate way. Children will respond better to practical examples. Fun activities that highlight concerns and best practices will be more effective than theory alone.
Remember to use the Internet itself to your advantage. Some useful resources contain educational materials, games and activities for teachers and students alike.
Cybersecurity Fundamentals for Students
It is important to emphasize how your students are not powerless. You should accompany any discussion of online threats with practical steps on how to minimize them.
Many threats arise as a result of sharing too much. Pay special attention to the discussion of student privacy and social media presence. Teach them to stop and think if posting something online might reveal unwanted information about themselves or their loved ones.
Students are not to become friends or associate with just anyone. They need to know that it’s okay to stop communicating and block anyone who harasses them or starts getting too personal. Emphasize how they can contact you or their parents if they feel uncomfortable or threatened by online interactions.
The younger generations are more tech-savvy than ever, so don’t assume that discussing some basic cybersecurity tools is above them. For example, teenagers will have no trouble understanding what it is like safer to use password managers than storing weak or the same passwords on their computers and phones. Ask them to install antimalware on all their devices and keep it up to date.
It is important to make students aware of various dubious practices. Teach them how to recognize phishing and manipulation attempts along with the dangers of online predation. It is also good to mention exploitative video games and harmful systems that can cause addiction and gambling problems.
Conclusion
The online presence is becoming the central part of the identities of more and more students. They have easier access to unregulated Internet content than previous generations. They also likely lack the tools and understanding to safely and productively spend their time online. You can do a lot to provide them with these resources.
