I definitely could've been online kidnapped as a child

It's kind of aging to say that we really didn't learn much about online safety or digital citzienship when I was in elementary school, the death of Amanda Todd when I was in Grade 8 was probably the one and only time online safety was taken seriously in my life up to that point. Having said that, she was used as a scare tactic for years after to reflect the dangers of the internet and to set the very very lower standard of online strangers. We watched her "suicide note" video a number of times and that was really the extent of our education on the subject.

I don't know if it was just my school, the fact that we live in Saskatchewan, or how early it was for internet safety, but there really wasn't a good understanding of how to teach kids the right and wrong ways to approach the Internet. All we were taught comes down to the "don't be stupid" approach, which I find extremely unhelpful. As kids, we were bound to make mistakes, and maybe with the right education we could have avoided a lot of casualties, but the education on how to educate just wasn't there at the time.

Personally I find the digital footprint approach a lot more useful. Having children and young adults taking responsibity for their place online not only encourages them to make good choices but also to take accountability for their actions and mistakes. I think the biggest thing to keep in mind when teaching about internet safety is that we need to be proactive about showing the good ways to approach the internet instead of solely what not to do, because I can personally attest to the fact the the "don't end up like Amanda Todd" approach simply doesn't work, at least not in the long term.

I find this poster to be much more helpful than what we had when I was younger, as it highlights actions to avoid, but also things to actively do to make the Internet a safer and more respectful place, like citing your sources. I find that giving kids tips on how to make the environment safer is a big step in creating respectful adults. Educating is truly the biggest ressource we have when in comes to Internet safety, and scare tactics are genuinely just not the way to go.

In summary, we've come a long way in the Internet safety worls since I was a kid, but we still have a long way to go to make it a safe environment, though it probably never will be.

That's all I have for you this week, see you soon!