Online Safety In Kids Hands: NCMEC & Sprint Join Forces

Sean Bryant

Online Safety
With new media and interactive game on Net Smart Teens, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and Sprint are challenging tweens (8-12 year olds) to think about the choices they’re making online. The new content added to the free Internet-safety site tackles issues like cyberbullying and online enticement. Its goal is to empower kids to be safer and smarter online.

"Recent studies have found that most children are using the Internet every day by age 8. As they get older the amount of time spent online will only increase," said John Ryan, CEO of NCMEC. "We have to help our kids understand, from a young age, that what they are doing online can have a lasting impact on their lives. Threats from potential predators are real, but kids also have to consider how they will react to cyberbullying and what they are leaving online for people like college admission officers and employers to see. With Sprint's help, we’re asking kids to think, not just about their safety, but about the kind of people they want to be online."

Online Safety Media & Games:

  • 6 Degrees of Information, a video that asks teens to think about the information they share online and how comfortable they are with people finding it. In the video, Matt, an Internet researcher, asks five teens to participate in an experiment where he will try to find out as much as he can about them online in just six clicks.
  • Rescue Run, a new game where players must avoid obstacles while racing to stop their friends from meeting face-to-face with people they first met online. During the game, players receive tips about how to handle requests to meet offline. Tweens can play at NSTeens.org or download the mobile version from the Apple iTunes stores or the Google Play Android store.
  • Stand By or Stand Up?, the first interactive, role-playing comic on Net Smart Teens. The comic addresses cyberbullying and engages tweens through a “choose-your-own-adventure” style of story in which their decisions help shape the comic’s outcome.

The new content, along with previous Internet-safety games and videos, is available for free at www.NSTeens.org. The site also includes activity cards and discussion guides to help educators and parents engage tweens in a dialogue about the issues.

For the full article click here.

Originally Posted Aug. 6, 2013 via National Center of Missing and Exploited Children

To learn more about Inversoft's Software Solution, CleanSpeak, click here.

Tags: