Did you know that 20% of children aged eight to 15 have been bullied in some way and that for older children (aged 12 to 15), bullying incidence is consistent between ‘real life’ (16%) and online (14% on social media and 12% in messaging apps)?
Teenagers must always be careful online at all times to avoid dangerous and harmful situations.
Online safety is necessary. Online safety is necessary because there can be many people that can try to hack you and take all your information. 7th grader Uriel Munoz Giron stated, ”My parents always tell me to be careful online and not get on websites I’m not supposed to and always be careful.” This emphasizes that online can be a really dangerous place, not only for teenagers but for adults too.
You may wonder, “How can I be safe online?” There are many ways to be safe online, such as having a good password so nobody can hack you and get into your account. Journalism teacher Mrs.Cook explains one way kids can stay safe online is, “They can walk away; they can hit the delete button, the block button, whatever it is. But I think when a kid has confidence in themselves, they feel powerful, more powerful in making the right choices.” Kids have a hard time with confidence, mostly in middle school, and that’s because they want to be involved with everything, or want to fit in.
Common online threats middle school kids should be aware of while interacting with people and posting online are strangers and sketchy websites. 8th grader Melanie Guillen states, “Sometimes online advertisements that are very inappropriate pop up, but I just quickly exit them out,” showing that some websites could show inappropriate things without the consent of the viewer, which can give kids a difficult time trying to avoid things that make them uncomfortable online.
Steps that you can take to protect yourself online are creating secure passwords and avoiding interacting with strangers. Journalism teacher Mrs. Cook illustrates that by stating, “If you don’t know someone, do not accept friend requests. Don’t request to be friends with someone you don’t know. There are, unfortunately, too many instances where people pretend to be someone they’re not online to do things that they shouldn’t…” And“ another safety thing kids need to make sure they do is make sure that, like with their social media that they might have, they make sure it’s password protected. That way, other people, or even Google, make sure you’ve got your password. Make sure you log out of things so that people can’t get into your files and things like that.” These quotes explain certain ways you could protect yourself and your information when online.
Online safety is necessary because there can be many people who can try to hack you, take all your information, or even try to force you into a dangerous situation. Confidence is key to avoiding strangers from bringing you into uncomfortable and harmful situations.