Parents who attend our Internet Safety workshops typically arrive with a good bit of  anxiety about the Internet, particularly around issues of online predators. It is our goal to provide parents with tips for keeping their children safe from others. But we also want to make sure that parents understand the need to monitor how their children are acting [...]

Computer security company Trend Micro has an offer for any teen (or adult) who cares about Internet safety and security and is looking for opportunities to become an award-winning filmmaker. The company has launched a contest called What’s Your Story? The lucky person who submits the best short video (no more than 2 minutes) can [...]

If your children are using Facebook, do they understand that everytime Facebook updates its privacy settings, they will  need to update their settings – immediately!? Because the default for many privacy options for minors is “friends of friends,” your kids could easily lose control of what they’ve posted to their Facebook accounts. We recommend sharing with your children Common Sense [...]

Does your child text while driving? If the answer is “yes,” he or she is at the same risk of causing a fatal accident as someone who is driving while legally drunk. The statistics are far reaching and frightening. Across the nation, celebrities and organizations are grappling with this escalating problem. Oprah Winfrey is taking [...]

During this busy time of year, 2WebWatchers hope you can set aside an hour on December 16 at 9:15 – 10:15 to log on to the 2009 K12 Online Conference – Bridging the Divide. High school teacher Vicki Davis and her students will be sharing their year-long Digiteens Global Project: As part of the k12 [...]

Parents often ask 2WebWatchers about the best ways to set parental controls on their home computer.  We think you’ll find Google’s SafeSearch worth checking out.  Of course, nothing replaces parental supervision, but the Google team is doing their best to provide parents with a user-friendly tool that attempts to block explicit or inappropriate sites. Thanks to very conspicous [...]

Is your principal or vice principal out there in the edublogosphere? If so, wouldn’t it be awesome to have an EGUSD administrator join the ranks of bloggers who have been added to Scott McCloud‘s growing Moving Forward wiki, such as elementary school principal Vincent Baxter, middle school principal Chris Lindholm, and high school principal Patrick [...]

Like students everywhere, our students are actively texting, posting to blogs, remixing, and uploading photos and videos – sometimes without the realization that once things are posted on the Internet, they can become archived permanently and are searchable by recruiters, future employers and anyone else out there with a computer. For the past three years, we [...]

California Assembly members are proposing a bill that would expand on the 2007 Chavez bill (AB 307) requirement for teaching Internet safety in California public schools. The Chavez bill originally addressed the need to teach students about copyright and fair use. The bill was later amended to include a section on Internet safety. A new [...]

A visit to Toby Johnson Middle School’s Video Productions class is like stepping into a whirlwind of amazing media activities. Throughout the classroom, students are teamed up and collaborating to meet a variety of production deadlines. Student groups may be working on Public Service Announcements, commercials to promote school activities, movies to be used for instructional purposes [...]