“As an internationally recognized expert in child and family safety, she now uses her expertise to help protect our kids, families and communities from predators, pedophiles, pornographers, murderers, abuse, abduction, accidents and accidental deaths. As a former police officer, Samantha Wilson believes these two things are true; crimes can be prevented and violence is predictable.”
- Kidproof Canada
I attended a school presentation by Samantha Wilson geared toward middle school students aged 10-14. The following is my summary of the presentation…
The talks began with a question and answer session on the internet: who invented it, when was it invented, why was it invented… very interesting information and this had the kids thinking about the original use of the internet.
The next segment was a talk about the “idea” of the internet. Wilson explained “the internet is a place, not a thing – anyone can go if they have a computer. You are in public and around the world.” I thought this was a great way to put the dangers of the internet in perspective because most of my students would describe the internet as a thing and they don’t relate the safety concerns of a place to the activities they are involved in on line.
The next slide touched on why kids like the internet, and ideas like the feeling of anonymity, a good place to meet people and play games, and an opportunity to read about interests. Wilson discussed who people meet on the internet and the difference between “face-to-face” friends and “online friends”. Face-to-face friends are known in real space like in school and online friends are people have never been in a face to face position, and the only be talking to these face to face friends. Wilson also discussed why it is easier to talk to these online friends; the good and the bad reasons. Good reasons included the feeling of freedom from judgment and ease at expressing feelings. Some of the bad reasons (which I don’t think many of the students have ever thought about) are that a person can pretend to be anyone they want and that there are no visual cues to follow. The bottom line is that students should find it hard to trust online friends… but they should never give online friends personal information.
Wilson next discussed screen names and how to make them safe. Safe screen names should never include personal information like gender, city of origin and real names. She also discussed what a you should and shoud not have on a personal site.
Two of the main messages that I thought were very important were:
- once it is online, it is online for life (including rumors/bullying)
- right and wrong are the same online as they are in real life
Checkout www.kidproofcanada.com and I would highly recommend having Samantha Wilson speak at your school!
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