Are Online Learners More Digitally Savvy?
We are bombarded by stories about teens and children caught up in cyberbullying, suicide ideation and even sextortion and trafficking. Knowing about these dangers has made me naturally cautious about where I go and what I do when I’m connected. It’s easy to feel like it’s just you and your computer, but that’s an illusion. The idea that there are predators lurking online seriously creeps me out.
During the holidays, I was hanging out with a friend who goes to a traditional school. She wanted to show me a photo that she had posted on a subreddit which she had started. I noticed that in response to a comment on the photo she had revealed she was 15. When I said I was concerned about this, she insisted that it wasn’t a risky thing to do. This made me realise how being at an online school has helped make me more aware of internet safety.
You may think that spending class time online can expose you to more threats, but in the end, it’s not about how much time you are spending connected, but the choices you make as you navigate the internet. While most of our classwork at Koa is done online, that doesn’t mean we free range all over the internet. We work on specific educational platforms and are guided to safe sites when we need to do research. We also have daily targets to complete, so there isn’t a lot of time during school hours to hang out on social media. Koa provides us with online safety resources, such as Klikd. In addition, because my family has chosen online school, we have open and ongoing conversations about internet safety.
Most kids in school today will probably be using computers in their future work. Learning not just to keep yourself safe, but how you interact with others online is an important skill we should learn at school.
Recently, I spent an afternoon with my same friend. We sat on her bed with her laptop, looking through her YouTube subscriptions and favourite channels. Ads were popping up all the time. Before I grasped what was happening, she had clicked on an ad for an adult dating site and created a fake email address and dating profile as a young Asian woman. Messages flooded in. Uncomfortable, I asked her to shut it down. It wasn’t that she intentionally wanted to catfish anyone, she was playing around. It made me wonder; if you asked the teens who have faced real dangers on the internet, how many of them would say it started out with them just having fun?
Whether you are at a traditional or an online school, it’s important to understand the risks and dangers of using the internet. Developing healthy internet habits should be part of everybody’s education so that young people make responsible decisions online and stay safer.
