A Teenager's Take on Internet Safety

Terry Friedman's site contains an article written by a teenage girl entitled, "A Teen’s View of “Their Space” and Internet Safety"

The article states, "When hearing about incidents of teenagers being put in danger or being taken advantage of by adults posing as kids on the internet, most of my friends do not really feel much sympathy for the children involved. We don’t take much notice of these risks because incidents like this happen so infrequently – it is easier to take the view that it would never happen to one of us than to constantly make risk assessments of everything we do. There is a much greater risk of being hurt by a stranger when walking down the street or out shopping. One of my school friends (aged 15) when I asked what she thought about the dangers of talking to strangers said “Well, that’s just tough isn’t it – if you’re stupid enough to talk to a weirdo on the internet what do you expect?”. This was just before she logged onto Myspace and accepted three new friends, all of whom she had never met before in her life. "

Questions for Discussion:
1. What does it mean to be safe on the Internet? Safe from what?
2. How do you maintain your own Internet safety?
3. Is it OK for a student to say that when somebody else gets hurt because of something that he/she did it's their fault, so they deserve it? Is it OK for a teacher or a parent to say the same thing? Why/why not?
4. Post the quotation included above and ask students what they would say to somebody who readily acknowledges that somebody who speaks to "weirdos" on the Internet deserves what happens and then accepts invitations to chat with strangers.

Note: These questions might appear simplistic. But ask students to respond to them in writing and they will promote thinking.