 |
|
|
|
Please note: The reports in this section are not product reviews or tests; they're meant to spotlight options for you to consider, as well as milestones in children's online-safety technology development. Comments from readers on their own experiences with these products and services are most welcome - and, with your permission, we publish them. Do email us your own product reviews anytime!
Online safety in French and Spanish, too (Oct. 28, '99 issue)
It's great to see Web resources in languages other than English. A new one that's just come to our attention - WebAwareness.org - is a completely bilingual resource site for parents, teachers, and librarians by the Media Awareness Network in Canada. The site is meant to "highlight the new challenges and issues that arise as children and young people go on the Internet," MNet says. It highlights a lot - where kids "go" on the Net (Web sites, chat, newsgroups, email, instant messaging), how to authenticate information on the Net, privacy and how kids are marketed to on the Net. They'll also provide downloadable PowerPoint workshops as teaching aids on these subjects (you'll need to register to gain access).
Then there are MNet's teaching tools for *children* (in both French and English):
- "Privacy Playground" is a downloadable animated computer game designed to teach seven-to-ten-year-olds how "to spot and avoid potential online dangers, which may range from Internet marketing ploys to actual threats."
- "CyberSense and Nonsense" stars the Three CyberPigs, Les, Mo and Lil, as they explore the world of online chat rooms. This game is designed to help kids 9-12 "learn to distinguish between biased, prejudicial information and factual, objective information, and to detect bias and harmful stereotyping in online content. Players are introduced to an accepted online code of conduct ('netiquette'), and to the concept that information isn't necessarily true just because it's on the Internet."
The Children's Partnership - a US nonprofit children's advocacy organization in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. - has developed the "The Parent's Guide to the Information Superhighway" and the "Parents' Online Resource Center," both in Spanish as well as English.
TCP's site is in "frames," which means the resources in their site don't have their own addresses, so here's how to find them:
"The Parent's Guide to the Information Superhighway" - On the site's home page, click on the title in the left-hand margin, then "Click here for a Spanish language version of the Guide."
"Parents' Online Resource Center" - On the home page, click on "Parents Online" in the left-hand margin, then on "Bienvenidos" for the Spanish version.
HOME
| newsletter | subscribe
| links | supporters
| about | feedback
