Changing behaviours online: Surfing safely
Abstract: Surfing Safely is an educational initiative designed to equip learners at a Jewish Orthodox Private School with sufficient knowledge to appreciate benefits and risks of electronic media at school. The initiative dealt basically with Internet safety. An aim was to empower children to take control of their use of the Internet, to cope with unwholesome exposures online, and to report incidents to appropriate authorities. The programme was created to address the topic at a school that prescribes the set ethos and values of Judaism. This paper analyses change of awareness and behaviour as they use the Internet. Changes were measured by a post-test questionnaire. Initial findings show that learners are impressionable and the programme has a tremendous impact on them. Overall, learners had no problem changing behaviours with regard to settings and privacy issues. There was less change in areas that they didn’t see as applicable to them – such as virus software or filters.
Presider: Errin Gregory, SD74 Gold Trail