3rd & 4th graders on cybersafety

Most of the third- and fourth-graders at Deer Park Elementary have a Net-connected computer at home, but "only 39% of the third-graders and 43% of the fourth-graders are required to ask their parents' permission before using their home computer," according to a survey conducted by the Washington, D.C., area school. Teacher Diane Painter reports in TechLearning.com that Deer Park celebrates Computer Learning Month each October by working with its students on "Cyber Safety and Ethics Awareness issues" and this summer surveyed its 3rd- and 4th-graders to find out how much they knew already. The study is a helpful look - for parents and teachers - at what parents and kids should know and at the excellent tech- and media-literacy work being done at some schools. In a few other findings, one-third of the 3rd- and 4th-graders have their own email accounts; less than 15% said they go into chat rooms, but by 4th grade, about 25% engage in instant-messaging; 39% of 3rd-graders and 63% of 4th-graders said they talk about Net safety at home. [On chat rooms, a police officer told a Deer Park school assembly that, while most crimes in their school district were on the decline, cyber crimes went up in Fairfax County, Va., "450% from 2001 to 2002. Many of these crimes were directly related to chat room use."] There are helpful tips for parents under "Safety Clicks Assembly" in this report, and don't miss the "Third Grade Cyber Safety Cartoons."