Is This Site Right for Me?
Digital Citizenship Element: Digital Right and Responsibility
Grade: 1-2 |
Learning Objective:
Students will learn how to stay safe online by choosing websites that are safe for them to visit and learning what to do if they visit an unsafe website.
Students will learn how to stay safe online by choosing websites that are safe for them to visit and learning what to do if they visit an unsafe website.
Materials:
- Website Traffic Light poster
- All Digital Citizens Poster from Common Sense Media
- Red, yellow, and green circles of paper (1 colour of each per student)
- Is This Site Right for Me? Parent Information Handout
Anticipatory Set
- Introduce the All Digital Citizens Poster.
- Draw student’s attention to the “Stay Safe Online by listening to their gut section”.
- Tell students they will be learning how to stay safe online.
- Ask students what it means to be safe.
- Ask students how they stay safe in their neighbourhood without a trusted adult around.
- Tell students just like how they need to be safe in their neighbourhood, they need to be safe online
Method
- Introduce the Website Traffic Light poster. Tell students this traffic light will help them find and choose websites that are just right for them.
- Link the Website Traffic Light in real life and the meaning of each colour to drivers. Green means go ahead, it’s safe. Yellow means slow down and be careful. Red means stop.
- Define the meaning of Green, Yellow, and Red websites.
- Green: Good choice, it’s safe
- A green website is appropriate for people your age, there are fun things for you to do and see, there are appropriate words, and you don’t talk with people you don’t know.
- Ask students for examples of Green websites and how they know they are safe.
- Yellow: Proceed with caution
- A yellow website is one that you aren’t sure is right for you - you might feel unsure in your tummy, you are asked for information like your name, where you live, your phone number or email address, you can communicate with people you don’t know
- Before you visit a yellow website, it is important to get permission from an adult
- Ask students if they have ever been to a yellow website and have them share their experiences
- Red: Stop! This website is not right for me.
- A red website is one that is not appropriate for you and makes you feel funny in your tummy, you may have gotten to the website by accident, and it has content that is for older kids or adults
- You need to stay away from red websites and if you are unsure, you need to ask an adult.
- Ask students if they have ever been to a red website and how they knew it wasn’t right for them.
- Teach students that if they ever get to a red website they need to listen to their gut feeling (from the Digital Citizen Poster) and tell an adult, click the back button, or close the screen.
- Play “Red Light, Green Light” by reading aloud the following statements to the class. The students respond by holding up the appropriate coloured circle of paper. Discuss the answers for each statement
- Your teacher tells you to visit a site where you can learn about polar bears: GREEN
- You are looking up heart images and you come across a website that makes you feel uncomfortable: RED
- The website for your favourite TV show has fun things for you to do: GREEN
- You are on a games website when a screen pops up and asks for your email address: YELLOW
- You were playing Minecraft and went to the Minecraft Chat and a person asks for your name: RED
- You visited a kids sport website that someone asks to chat with you about your favourite team: YELLOW
- You went to a fun website that even your teacher would think would be appropriate for you: GREEN
Closure
- Review the three types of websites.
- Ask students what to do if you end up at a yellow or red website.
At Home Extension
- Send home the Is This Site Right for Me? Take Home Handout
- Have students find at least 3 websites that are just right for them at home with their parents.
References
Common Sense Media. (2015). Staying safe online. Retrieved from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/lesson/staying-safe-online-k-2
Common Sense Media. (2015). Staying safe online. Retrieved from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/lesson/staying-safe-online-k-2