Internet Safety Assignment

For my article of choice, I chose to read Elder Bednar's talk called "Things as They Really Are". I heard this talk when he gave it as a CES Fireside, but I wanted to read it again to refresh my memory. We really do live in a technological world and with that comes immense benefits as well as many many avenues that will only lead to places of harm. Because of that, we need to follow the spirit and know the ways to be safe on the internet.
I watched several videos, and they were all beneficial learning tools for me. I first watched a video called "Cyberbullying: Feathers in the Wind. It made a connection between gossip and feathers in the wind. Once we spread gossip, it is hard to take back what we said, just as it is hard to collect feathers in the wind. I saw another video on Cyberbullying, and it was about a website that was created that rated girls' looks. I saw a video called "Julie's Journey". This video told the story of a 13-year old girl who started talking to a man named Tom online - he ended up being a convicted murderer. I also watched a video called "Amy's Choice". In this video Amy didn't feel that she had anyone to talk to, but she met up with someone online and ran away with him. She was eventually found, he was caught and now serves in prison. I saw the video from the BYU animation department called "Faux Paw the Techno Cat." I also watched three videos called "Child Predator Fear", "Katie's Story", and "Trying on New Identities".
This activity was extremely beneficial to me, because I learned so much about how dangerous the internet really can be. We live in a world where children and teenagers really do own the internet, and many of their lives revolve around the internet. If we don't know how we can safegaurd them, the web really can be a dangerous place. I feel that I gained knowledge of how I could protect my children and students from scary places on the internet.
The person that I talked to was familiar with technology and the benefits and dangers that come along with it, but as I shared some of the articles that I read and watched, he was surprised at how many teens really do get caught up in compromising circumstances. He was surprised at how many teens agree to meet up with strangers, even when they sometimes know how much older the stranger is than them. This person surprised me when he said that teens wouldn't find themselves in dangerous circumstances if they were able to follow their instincts when chatting with others online. I think that this person will be more aware of the dangers that can be found online, and he has agreed to be more aware of what his children are doing everytime they are on the web.