What’s It all About?

NetSmarz is for students from kindergarten thru high school, parents, teachers, law enforcement and community leaders. It is sponsored by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. According to their website, they have three goals:

• educate children on how to recognize potential internet risks
• engage children and adults in a two-way conversation about on- and offline risks
• enpower children to help prevent themselves from being exploited and report victimization to a trusted adult

Although not flashy, the website is easy to navigate and provides significant information in a well-organized manner. Clicking on TRENDS and TOPICS will bring up topics such as cell phones, cyberbullying, video chat, sexting, and social media. Navigating to the topic will bring up resources such as activity cards, video, handouts and presentations. There are also discussion questions and tips.

The teaching resources tab offers lessons for primary (ages 5-7) thru high school. It includes all types of age-appropriate resources such as board games, music video, discussion questions and videos, large and small group activities. There are also safety pledge cards and tip sheets. (Again, age appropriate)

An online “Teaching Digital Citizenship” educator training program is available. The project is a joint venture between NetSmartz Workshop and Disney to help educators teach internet safety and become good digital citizens. The topics include digital literacy and ethics, inappropriate content, online sexual solicitation, privacy, sexting, cyberbullying and cybersecurity. The course is self-paced and takes approximately 1.5 hours. A certificate is available to use toward continuing education credits.

This website has a vast number of resources on this very important topic. Teachers of students of all ages should check it out!

Explore NetSmartz and see all it has to offer.

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