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Chapter 1. An Introduction to Internet Safety
The COVID pandemic has increased childrenās screen time by almost 100%. 54% parents said their children now spend an additional 5 hours on an average online as compared to the pre-pandemic days(Source: news article in The Economic Times dated 13 Sept., 2021)
A lot of you, probably, also feel out of the loop and
- worry about where your children go online
- wonder if they will talk to you in case of any online trouble
- think of controlling their usage but stop short not wanting to hinder their online studies
This book can solve your dilemma, it tells you about the mistakes young users are likely to make and how these can be avoided or overcome. The book is meant for parents and teachers and also for every person who uses the internet, whether 8 or 80 years old. Each one will hopefully find some pertinent information in this book.
The current Covid-19 pandemic might be a good time to teach children about safe and healthy use of digital technology.
Online Safety Issues
In this book, we discuss the entire gamut of online safety issues, such as:
- Understanding that the internet is a very public space, with our online lives and real-world lives closely intertwined, each affecting the other.
- Importance of Netiquette, good etiquettes when online, and importance of leaving clean digital footprints
- Tips for protection of very young kids (5yr-8 yr), when online
- Cyber-bullying /online abuse: Staying away from online abuse and steps to deal with cyber abuse
- Identifying and keeping potential online predators and pedophiles at a distance
- Knowing what information is considered as personal information and why it is to be kept private
- Awareness of IT Act, including clauses that deal with hacking, impersonation, stealing of anotherās online data, cyberbullying, etc.
- Gaining knowledge of (post-Nirbhaya) women-centric laws to tackle online sexual harassment, voyeurism and stalking
- Concept of plagiarism and importance of avoiding plagiarism and copyright violation
- Learning how to modify privacy settings on FaceBook, Whatsapp, LinkedIn, Instagram, SnapChat, Twitter, Flickr, Pininterest, to ensure oneās personal safety
Reason for writing this book
We, a group of close friends, a society registered in April 2010 under the Societies Registration Act of 1860, and are committed to promote a responsible and safer internet ecosystem.
Children donāt think of consequences! 13% students said that they had uploaded photographs that they would not want to share with their family!
We have conducted close to 400 workshops and events in schools, colleges, NGOs, as well as institutions like National Bal Bhavan (every year), National Book Trustās World Book Fair, etc. reaching out to over 1.2 lakh+ children, parents and teachers.
A team of dedicated college volunteers assist us in conducting the workshops. Our volunteers benefit in a number of ways, the work gives them a chance to give back to the community, helps them learn public speaking skills and without doubt adds to their job resume.
We have been regularly compiling our experience at these events, and this includes what students said or asked. In this book, we have summarized a lot of what we learnt as we interacted with the students. We feel that this book can prove to be a useful resource for anyone who wishes to know about internet safety. It can be used to introduce internet safety to students and to ensure that safety becomes second-nature to them.
Chapter Format
In each chapter of the book you will find a combination of the following elements.
True Incident/dilemma
Some chapters begin with a true incident/dilemma with the solution to it hidden somewhere in the chapter, for instance Ashmeet and Devang (names changed) were friends; Devang asked Ashmeet to send some nude pictures of hers, she refused but then very reluctantly sent him a picture. After some time, Devang shared this picture with his friends and it soon became public. How did Ashmeet deal with this difficult situation?
Practical Tips
A couple of āPractical Tipsā; these are simple to-do points that one could implement right away to make the online journey safe and fun. For example, how to create strong passwords, how to deal with cyberbullying, how to keep information on your smartphone safe, how to lodge a complaint with the cyber police, etc.
Survey Results
A few results of surveys conducted by JaagoTeens, for instance*
- 13% students said that they had uploaded photographs that they would not share with their family! This revelation got us into action and we now urge students to take privacy of their photographs and other personal information very seriously. We also clarify to them that no privacy setting is fool proof and one needs to think that once something is posted online there is no guarantee that it will remain private as the internet is a very public space.
- 28% students were sure they could guess the age of a stranger with whom they were interacting online, another 64% yielded āsometimesā, thus laying bare the utter naivety of their tender adolescent minds!
- In a college survey, we asked students if they would talk to their parents/guardians about any uncomfortable online experiences.
Conversation starters for teachers and parents
Some suggestions for conversation starters for parents/guardians, some ideas on how to get talking to children about Internet Safety. For example, to tell a child about safe online gaming and to draw their attention to the age-rating mentioned on games, to tell children when and whom to report to in case they are faced with any disquieting situations.
Teaching ideas
You will find lots of teaching Ideas. These can be used by both, parents as well as teachers.
Let your child know who are the trusted adults they can go to in case of any online trouble
- Simple craft ideas, for instance making a double-sided mask to explain that a person pretending to be a handsome 15-year-old might actually be a 50-year-old abuser.
- Scripts for puppet shows, for example āThree Red Flagsā in Chapter 8 titled āOnline Predatorsā can be used by children to do a puppet show/play and this can then be used to teach children to recognize signs of online abuse.
- Ideas for games that can be played in the classroom. For instance, our JaagoTeens, āBe a Net Smarteeā board game is extremely effective in communicating internet safety messages to young children.
Since teachers are always strapped for time, weāve tried to make the teaching activities easily implementable. All of our activities are tried and tested and have been used successfully with hundreds of students.
Easy to Read
Discussion of all topics is kept simple with plenty of sub-headings for quick and easy reading.
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Chapter 2. Real World and the Virtual World
The following is a true incident reported to us by a college student:
Ashmeet (name changed) had a big-time crush on Devang (name changed). They became friends on FaceBook and were soon talking to each other every day. Ashmeet felt really close to Devang. One day, Devang pleaded with her to send him a nude photograph of hers. She refused him outright, but Devang continued to beg of her to send him just one pic. She finally relented and sent him a partially nude pic of hers.
But what happened next completely shattered Ashmeet. She came to know that Devang had circulated her nude pic among his friends. She started getting harassing calls and messages. They called her a sl**!! The picture just seemed to be everywhere, even people in the colony, where she lived, seemed to know about it.
At the end of March 2021, India had 825.30 million Internet users.
(Source: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI))
This continued for weeks and months. Finally, she made up her mind to bring this to an end as she could no longer bear the humiliation being piled on to her.
She spoke about the incident to someone and this person helped her deal with the situation. Who do you think helped her out?
Find the answer to this question in this chapter.
Introduction
Do you use the internet?
If you do, you are one of the estimated 4.6 billion (3 billion in 2016) people who go online, congratulations! Roughly 59.5% of the worldās population has access to the internet today, and interestingly, in 1995, just 1% of the world population was using the internet[1].
If people post something online, they need to know that any of those 4.6 billion people might see their post. One might think that this is something impossible. Let us take the example of āBaby Shark Danceā the most watched video. It has been viewed, on YouTube, over 9.27 billion times as in September 2021.
And this means that any other post can similarly go viral and be viewed by millions of people from all over the world.
Think of the maximum number of people some of your posts might have reached and now think of the maximum number of people these posts could have reached!
Let us compare the number of people on the internet with those in the physical world. Any public place like a busy market or a railway station, or even the Kumbh mela (12 crore or 120 million people attended it in 2013), has far fewer people than the internet. But even with such a large number of users here, the internet is deceptively quiet! This leads one to believe that one is all alone in the online space, but that is not true. One has to constantly keep reminding oneself that the internet is a public space where lots of other people are constantly reading and watching what other people are posting.
āSafetyā in the Real World Extends to the Virtual World
The dictionary meaning of safety is to be in a state of being safe and protected from danger or harm. Extending the definition to the virtual world, a person needs safety or protection against online dangers, here too. Online dangers could be identity theft, harassment, malware and phishing attacks, access to inappropriate and obscene content, pedophiles, terrorists, and others.
Why are So Many People Online?
The internet is a wide and varied place; with people using it in many different ways:
- A lot of communication in the form of emails, chat messages or VoIP is done over the internet. Social networking sites have made it easy for people to keep in touch with their friends and family.
- People are constantly looking up the internet for information, on jobs, health, the latest news, or some government services etc.
- Students find it useful to view online classes and working professionals are able to upgrade their skills through online courses.
- People bank online, shop online, book travel or movie tickets, saving a lot of time and effort in the process.
- Last but not the least, the internet is used for entertainment, some of its most popular forms being music and videos. A word of caution here, make sure that you understand the terms of use for all content you view and do not violate any copyright rules for media files that you may download. Check the terms of use and make sure you abide by them. This topic is covered in detail in Chapter 12 titled, āOnline Plagiarismā.
Are you feeling left out because you do not know how to use the internet? Nothing can replace your real-world experience, so just go ahead and hone your internet skills.
The internet has seeped into so many areas of our lives, leaving practically nothing untouched. Looking at the current trend one can only expect it to be more deeply entrenched in peopleās lives in the future, and whether we will greatly benefit from it or not, time alone will tell.
Real World and the Virtual World
Internet users are denizens of two worlds, the Real World and the Virtual World; sounds strange, but isnāt it true? People exist on the Earth, the Real World, but when they go online, they mov...
