[MCCSC] Monroe County
Community School Corporation
315 E North Drive . Bloomington, IN 47401 . USA . 812.330.7700
www.MCCSC.edu
 		Guide for Parents and Teachers
Using Search Utilities
MCCSC Acceptable Use Policy
 
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The MCCSC Learning Network subscribes to Policy and Guidelines 2521 of the Monroe County Community School Corporation. Links contained on these pages to information or other organizations are presented as a service and neither constitute nor imply endorsement or warranty. © 1998 MCCSC.

A Guide for Parents/Teachers

 The key to children's use of the Internet and the World Wide Web is not limited to research and search skills. These are important. But of far greater concern to parents and teachers are issues of Your child/student may be a pre-schooler just becoming familiar with the 'Net, an elementary school student starting to use the Web for research and entertainment, or a middle- or high-school student quite familiar with the advantages and information available in Cyber Space.

The MCCSC Acceptable Use Policy suggests that children's and students' use of the Internet resources is a three-part responsibility:

  • the home -- parents, guardians, extended family
  • the school -- teachers, staff, administration, volunteers
    and
  • the student.
If use of the Internet is primarily centered in the home -- as opposed to exposure at school or at public / community sites like the Monroe County Public Library (which also has an Internet Use Policy with which parents and teachers should be familiar) -- the primary responsibility resides with two parties:
  • the home -- parents, guardians, extended family
    and
  • the young person.
It is important that you and your child begin to develop a familiarity with the various searching and indexing tools available -- Search the 'Net and Using Search Utilities -- but the most important parental / educational tactic is to stay informed and to stay involved.
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The MCCSC Learning Network subscribes to Policy and Guidelines 2521 of the Monroe County Community School Corporation. Links contained on these pages to information or other organizations are presented as a service and neither constitute nor imply endorsement or warranty. © 1998 MCCSC.

Protecting Privacy

Adult Content
Online Chats
Junk E-Mail

More and more websites are funded or supported by commercials or advertisements. For many years, public schools operated under policies which forbade commercialism or the display of advertising logos on school property or resources. This was central to the discussions surrounding the use of "Channel One" grants in the 1980's and early 90's.

Realizing the tremendous buying power of children and teens, these Web advertisements offer incredible enticements:

  • free samples
  • free software
  • gifts
and more, in exchange for personal information.

The Children's On-Line Privacy Protection Act of 1998 prohibits websites from collecting information from children 12 and under without the verifiable permission of parent or guardian.

Become familiar with how each site your child visits approaches data collection. Does the site use "cookies" -- a piece of information stored both on your computer and at the distant site that identifies the "surfer" to the website? If so, is your browser configured to require the site to "ask permission" before depositing a cookie? Is it possible to use the site without accepting the cookies?

Make sure your children understand that disclosing personal information is not a good idea -- whether it is over the Internet or over the telephone.

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The MCCSC Learning Network subscribes to Policy and Guidelines 2521 of the Monroe County Community School Corporation. Links contained on these pages to information or other organizations are presented as a service and neither constitute nor imply endorsement or warranty. © 1998 MCCSC.

Adult Content

Privacy
Online Chats
Junk E-Mail

More and more websites focus on sexually explicit material. While this is disturbing and potentially harmful to both the useful future of the 'Net and to your child, these locations should not frighten you out of using the Web to great advantage.

By far the most effective tools for both parents and teachers are information and involvement. Guiding children to appropriate information, providing them with decision-making skills, and discussing their responsibilities to and with their friends and peers has lasting educational benefits that extend beyond use of the Internet.

Filters

Preference settings, available on both of the popular Web browsers (Netscape and Internet Explorer), can be configured to limit children's access to certain sites. Become familiar with these options on the browser toolbar.

Web filters are available to parents for use at home. This screening software, like SurfWatch from Spyglass and Cyber Patrol from Surf Patrol, Inc., is designed to filter out unwanted content. When used in the home, these applications can be "personalized" for multiple levels of access and content. When used in institutions, like schools or libraries, Web filters tend to become "one size fits all."

The use of filtering software does add two levels of adult involvement, however, that are integral to the concept of responsibility:

  • Discovery and management of accessible and "blocked" sites according to family and/or community values;
    and
  • Awareness of "polarized" limitations:
    • Adult Content Gets Through.
      Adult-content websites are constantly changing addresses and keyword indicators , thus defeating the filter; [See the discussion of the <META> tag in the section on Search for Multiple Terms that shows how the words "identifying" the site to the filter can be unrelated to sex.]
      and
    • Good Material Gets Lost.
      Subject-content restrictions often eliminate desired sites because of the difficulty in describing or narrowing what should be excluded.
It is vital that any filtering software be configurable by the adult supervisor and that the adult supervisor be able to determine what specific sites the software is blocking. Software which does not provide these options should not be selected for use. It is as educationally important to be able to determine sites a child cannot visit as it is to know where the child is going.

Do not assume that any filtering software can take the place of being informed and involved.

Child-Friendly Browsers

The two most popular Internet / Web browsers are free to educational institutions. In a time of tight funding and limited resources, this fact makes it possible for schools to offer Internet activity to all students. However, these browsers may be supplemented with both more restrictive tools -- such as Edmark's KidsDesk Internet Safe which limits access to all but preselected sites. -- and with planning, selecting and bookmarking acceptable or appropriate sites no matter what the browser.

Preselecting sites is a recommended practice. Teachers and parents can visit sites recommended by colleagues and friends and store these locations in Bookmark or Favorites files in the browsers. Not only will this focus the child on appropriate information and activities but pre-visiting a site means it will load and display much quicker than a site new to the workstation. These "bookmark" files can be stored on a floppy and substituted for the hard-drive version of the file whenever children are using the browser -- allowing the family to have sites bookmarked for Mom and Dad, for teens, for pre-schoolers.

The MCCSC Searching the 'Net page contains a number of kid-specific search tools -- Just For Kids and Yahooligans, for example -- and educational resources which point toward appropriate activities.

Now What?

If all fails. You have answered the door for a visiting neighbor. Your filter didn't catch a missing <dot> or some other typographical mistake registered as an adult site. Your child's friend gives him/her an innocent-looking address or URL that leads directly to an adult-content site. Your child becomes curious and ventures off on his/her own. Now what?

Establish clear and consistent guidelines. Have regular interactive discussions about the locations and information your child finds on the Internet. Use common sense, tempered with experience, to guide your reaction to missteps and wrong turns on the Information Super Highway.

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The MCCSC Learning Network subscribes to Policy and Guidelines 2521 of the Monroe County Community School Corporation. Links contained on these pages to information or other organizations are presented as a service and neither constitute nor imply endorsement or warranty. © 1998 MCCSC.

Online Chats

Privacy
Adult Content
Junk E-Mail

Online chats are the Internet version of telephone partylines or CB radio. They are wonderful places for children to share interests, develop new friendships, and learn new things. The value of this experience is probably directly related to offline, open discussions with family and friends about the people, things, and information.

Chat Rooms have earned a bad reputation as a result of their misuse by both children and predators. Unmonitored, either online or offline, chat sessions can turn nasty. Common misinformation or prejudice can be passed on as truth. Participants can misrepresent themselves. Children can come in contact with adults seeking to take advantage of them. Most frightening is the sometime-presence of pedophiles attempting to develop relationships with unsuspecting young people.

Repeat the guidance about personal information and advise your child to never make offline contact with someone she/he has met online -- unless you approve or are present. Honest participants and peers will welcome this restriction. When done appropriately, these opportunities could lead to new, close friendships.

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The MCCSC Learning Network subscribes to Policy and Guidelines 2521 of the Monroe County Community School Corporation. Links contained on these pages to information or other organizations are presented as a service and neither constitute nor imply endorsement or warranty. © 1998 MCCSC.

Junk E-Mail

Privacy
Adult Content
Online Chats

The more active you or your child are online the more likely you and/or your child will be the recipient of "junk" e-mail. Often this occurs after you have "registered" on a Web site or after you have answered a questionaire of a survey for "free" goodies. But sometimes junk mailers will simply pick up information from "cookies" and chat rooms.

If your child has a personal e-mail account, or uses yours, be sure to monitor incoming mail for appropriate content. Often junk mailers will flood e-mail addresses with inappropriate advertisements and offers knowing that they can effectively hide their real names and addresses.

Should inappropriate material get through, use the techniques suggested in Adult Content:

  • Establish clear and consistent guidelines.
  • Have regular interactive discussions about the locations and information your child finds on the Internet.
  • Use common sense, tempered with experience, to guide your reaction to missteps and wrong turns on the Information Super Highway.
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The MCCSC Learning Network subscribes to Policy and Guidelines 2521 of the Monroe County Community School Corporation. Links contained on these pages to information or other organizations are presented as a service and neither constitute nor imply endorsement or warranty. © 1998 MCCSC.

Other Resources

Stay informed. Stay involved.
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The MCCSC Learning Network subscribes to Policy and Guidelines 2521 of the Monroe County Community School Corporation. Links contained on these pages to information or other organizations are presented as a service and neither constitute nor imply endorsement or warranty. © 1998 MCCSC.