Internet Safety - Who is Responsible?

The Internet, while an amazing resource, is also a place that can be quite dangerous, especially for children.  Who has the responsibility for ensuring children's safety while online.  Parents?  Teachers? The kids?  How about all of the above?  As educators, we have to assume responsibility for our students' safety while they are with us.  While we would like to think all parents are on top of their children's online behaviors, we cannot assume parents are as mindful as we would like them to be.  We need to help parents develop the skills needed to be tech-savvy Internet monitors, as well as participants.  While filtering everything that might be harmful through school servers certainly limits the legal ramifications, is it the best way to help our children become responsible digital citizens?  Once they leave school, most kids operate in an unfiltered world. It's 3:00, do you know where your children are surfing?

Lynette Owens writes a thoughtful piece about partnerships that need to develop between home and school to increase the likelihood c ourhildren become responsible digital citizens.  You can read the Washington Post piece below:  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/5-ways-to-teach-kids-to-use-technology-safely/2012/07/30/gJQAbEClLX_blog.html, Lynette Owens