This year, October 20-24 represents Digital Citizenship Week, an annual campaign to promote a healthy, balanced, and positive approach to media and tech use among young people.  

Given the prevalence of technology in modern society, it's important for parents to stress some key tips and habits to keep their children safe online. With that in mind, check out these five primary pieces of advice from the district’s Director of Information Technology & Truancy Services, Chuck Robinson.  

Protect Your Privacy: Keep personal info private. Only share your name, school, address, phone number, and passwords with trusted adults  

Think Before You Click: If it looks weird, wrong, or too good to be true, stop and ask an adult.  

Trust Your Feelings: If something online makes you feel upset, uncomfortable, worried, concerned, or confused, tell an adult right away.  

Be Kind Online: The same rules of kindness apply on screens and in real life.  

Balance Time Online: Screens help us learn —but our brains and bodies need offline time, too.  

In the district building, students’ devices are protected through Securly, a comprehensive device safety measure. Robinson heads those efforts, his office surrounded with monitors that alert him of potential dangers. Securly monitors the network, alerting Robinson of websites and applications being accessed that are harmful to students and the learning environment. Robinson is also alerted when students type certain keywords on their devices. In those instances, Robinson will meet with the student and connect them with additional resources, should they need it.  

With all of this information gleaned, Robinson also sends out a list of websites and applications that students are accessing to teachers, helping inform other sets of eyes to keep students safe.  

Parents and guardians can extend these safety measures at home with easily accessible web filters and resources and a keen eye.  

“There are so many built-in and free resources that are readily available to download on your kids' device to make them safer,” said Robinson.  

“Parents and guardians can also help by keeping their child’s device in shared places, especially if the child is more at risk to certain online activities. If you think they might be getting on a bad website with bad actors, check their device.”  

While these guardrails at school and at home make it tough on students to access websites and applications that they shouldn’t, Robinson cautions that students are crafty and technologically-savvy in finding work-arounds.  

“Kids are very smart. I’m seeing kids access things where I’m like, ‘how do you know about this? How are you figuring this out? They’re clever. If you block something, they’ll try to find a way around it,” said Robinson. “Kids are very ingenious with it. I’m seeing 11 and 12 year olds figuring out the basics on how to get on the dark web.”  

Beyond safety measures, Robinson stresses it's important for students to understand the differences between real life and the internet or a video game.  

“Games are a healthy outlet, but children need to understand that games are games and real life is real life. You need to learn how to separate them, and parents can help by talking to their children and stressing that a game is not how real life works,” said Robinson. “Talk regularly about online behavior and make sure what they’re doing online is safe.  

Still, there are similarities too, in how a student should conduct themselves online and in real life. Values like respect, decency, and treating others kindly should carry over in all walks of life.  

“You shouldn’t bully someone in person, nor should you hide behind a screen and bully someone online, either,” said Robinson.