For their entertainment, for gaming, for talking to their friends, for entertainment, and, of course, for school. And that means that their online health, safety, and wellbeing is just as important as their physical safety, health, and wellbeing, and that they need to think about them now.
Not when they’re 18.. We already teach our children how to keep themselves safe when they are alone, how to cross the street, how to play nicely with others, what to do if there’s a fire. Kids need to learn the same things online.
And even though the formal study of cybersecurity is relatively new, teaching the basic facts about privacy, personal information, and security in middle school can help students form good habits before bad ones take root.. Start with the basics. Cybersecurity education doesn’t have to come in the form of a sticky keyboard covered in hexadecimal code or a montage of hacking scenes.
First principles will typically be far more personal, like teaching your loved one to create complex, secure passwords, how to detect suspicious emails, how to protect a bank account or personal data, and the importance of update protocols, or not connecting to public WiFi hotspots.. It can also include the difference between the surface web, the deep web, and the dark web.
Answering the question of what is the deep web, with a simple explainer, will immediately clear up a common misunderstanding. The deep web is not what you would consider illegal and suspicious, for the most part. It’s mostly data and information on the web that search engines do not index and therefore can’t show in search results.
Private social media profiles, bank accounts, email inboxes, etc. all exist on the deep web. As do databases, library catalogues, password-protected directories, and school intranets.. Providing this context gives students valuable insights into how the online world works.
It also creates opportunities to discuss the importance of personal information protection and proper online conduct.. Turn lessons into practice. The subject is easier to teach through story, too.
An assignment might prompt students to pick out the red flags in an email, determine if a web page is corrupt, or decide what personal details they would omit if they were tasked with setting up a fake online profile.. Simulations take it a step further. Cast students in the roles of the click-happy-user, the scammer, or the digital gumshoe, and ask them to discuss the consequences of their decisions on an overall story canvas..
Above all else, the goal is not to turn kids away from the internet entirely. It is to raise their digital confidence in ways that make clicking, sharing, downloading, and responding something they do with more skepticism and thought.. Build skills before problems appear.
Digital habits die hard. If students learn early cybersecurity, they will acquire the habits to defend accounts, devices, identities, and data as the online world gets broader and more complex.. Cybersecurity education should run parallel to digital literacy, not years after it.
Middle school may be the last window we have to teach students that the online world is a place of freedom and responsibility.. Tags: trends
