Hello again,

First off, the answer is yes, he did say privacy. The internet can be an intimidating thing. Almost all of your personal activity is logged and saved, even without you wanting it to be. People screenshot, tech companies monitor search histories, your phone listens to the things you say and provides you with advertisements based on it. It is easy to feel like the internet is your enemy and not your friend. But this is only true if you don’t take proper care of yourself and your information. A large portion of the battle against internet safety and privacy is safe internet conduct. Thinking about the effects of what you post or what photo you share. Thinking deeply about the question ‘if my boss saw this…’. Doing this will stop half of your problems and concerns immediately. As an educator specifically, we must have permission for a lot of things like field trips, school meals, etc… There are several laws in place surrounding the internet and social media and sharing. The internet is one of those things. Fortunately, there are plenty of helpful resources available.

Here are some laws provided by the “Freedom of Information and Privacy Act”. The B.C government has a website page on Information security Awareness.  The Privacy Commissionaire of Canada has some helpful tips for parents and teachers concerning privacy education for kids here. We must receive permission for any social media activity involving school or students. Here and here are some guidelines on consent and forms involved. I learned all of this plus more from a wonderful – and very knowledgeable – guest speaker named Jesse Miller (the name is a link to his professional twitter account). My final remark is a tip to all internet users: the internet can come back to you and hit you like a wrecking ball. Think twice before uploading or posting something onto the internet.

 

Till next time,

 

Preston