A Parent's Guide to Cyber-Safety
This is where I would like to speak with you, one parent to another. In this section, my on-line seminar, I hope to do away with formality and make you feel as though we are sitting across from each other, enjoying a cup of coffee. I want you to be able to use the information I shared with my parent Google Group to ensure the safety of your children.
To start off, let me define a few key terms for you: I tried to break it down to the basics but keep the relevant information.
Consumer Web- This was the World Wide Web of the 90's. People would go online to consume information. There were various business sites, encyclopedias, and school sites. However, there was no interactivity between you and the site.
Web 2.0- Better known as the read-write-web, this second generation of the World Wide Web began in the early 2000's. Advances were made in coding so that people were no longer merely consuming information, but contributing information as well. Additionally, you no longer had to be a "Web master" to create and maintain a Website. During this period of time, the Web became more user-centered, and people began commenting on sites such as Amazon.com and Livejournal.com. The biggest improvement of this generation was more open communication and sharing of information. Blogs,social media and video-sharing sites were all born during this generation. I remember the first time I saw this new technology at work, stats were changing on a Website before my eyes, and no one was programming it. I was amazed.
Social Media- Media or tools for social interaction online. Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue. It is the tools/media by which people connect.
Social Network- Refers to the people that use social media tools to create a network. The network is people and how they interact. Social networking devices such as Facebook and Formspring inherently have positive and negative qualities. I will post a list of popular social networking devices that many teens use.