New Rochelle Teenangels on Internet Safety: Kate

1. The Internet is an extremely powerful resource; containing both helpful and harmful material. It is extremely important for teens to be aware of what is harmful and what is not. The main safety tips for teens include: visiting private chat rooms (with people known outside the Internet only), creating their own chat rooms instead of visiting public ones, only downloading legal music, video, media etc., keeping their profiles “vague” which includes never posting personal info (i.e. name, school, address etc.), speaking online only to people known outside the Internet, only meeting up with people known outside the Internet, using a webcam only with friends you know offline, being careful about what you post-words, pics etc. can be twisted, altered copied and distributed by anyone, and avoiding pop-ups because they can harm your computer and/or lead you to unintended websites.

2. Through presentations we, as Teenangels, have been able to spread our messages of Internet safety (tips, what to be aware of, how to prevent cyberbullying and much, much more). By visiting schools, we have reached out to students of all grade levels as well as parents and all groups have been vocal in our Q&A sessions. I have recently created a colorful keychain with laminated safety tips and interesting graphics as another fun way to keep teens aware of the many dangers which I plan on giving to the incoming sixth graders as a way of reinforcing the message.

3. I believe our efforts are very effective. I have seen a lot of participation during our presentations (i.e.: we once made a presentation to 800 students where we gave a cyberbullying facts quiz and the students actively shouted out their guesses). Also, I believe that teen-to-teen interaction in general seems to be a lot more effective than the adult-to-teen interaction where teens just don’t want to listen and so they tune out altogether. We can make a big difference.

Teenangel Kate