School web sites

One overlooked area of school Internet safety comes in the area of school web sites. Having your school on the Internet is a wonderful way to keep parents involved in school activities & can prove to be a wonderful project for older students. However there are safety factors involved which are often overlooked.

Children who appear on a school's web site are at that school from 8:30 A.M. to 3 P.M. every day. It's easy to find them during those hours & when they are walking to & from school, especially if you know their name & have a printout of their photo in your hand.

I recommend that a school use photos of children only after they get the parents' consent, & only in groups of five or more. I also recommend that they not identify the children by name, only by the group: "Ms. Smith's fourth grade class" or the "Volleyball Club," for instance.

Links to Off-School Sites

If a school links to off-school sites, it needs to review them to make sure they are appropriate for students' use. Many children's sites are now using bridge pages to provide a transition from the protected environment to the Web or off-site sites.

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