To make matters worse, unlike other academic subjects in which the learning goal may be to understand core knowledge facts and processes, the ultimate goal of internet safety learning must take understanding to a higher level: cyber-culture adoption of safe and responsible internet interaction among youth. How do we find a way to address internet safety within the curriculum in a way that will work towards this goal?

First we must equate internet safety education with other learning. No matter what part of the world one may live in, educational process conforms to the standards for what needs to be learned and how it is to be taught. Best practice in pedagogy, the basis for establishing standards of education, dictates that to be successful in internet safety education, we need to go beyond simple awareness of issues by challenging teachers and students to examine what cyberspace activity means to each individual and to society as a whole.

With this strategy in mind, teachers must be prepared to confidently teach internet safety and adopt curriculum that will fit within local curricular structures by providing the means to meet established standards or requirements in academic areas or other key strategies such as child safeguarding requirements.

The i-SAFE program provides just such an approach through offering professional development and an international internet safety curriculum that is designed to be customized if needed, to local internet safety needs, interests, and goals. As an example, in the United Kingdom these materials can be aligned to the National Curriculum’s Key Stages, and perhaps more importantly, to the key outcomes of the safeguarding strategies covered under “Every Child Matters” and the Children’s Act.

All i-SAFE materials can be supported with other awareness materials and activities that may already be in place such as online safety games. However, this program is unique in that it has the ability to give longevity to the concepts initiated and supported in events, such as the Safer Internet Day, by incorporating them into an ongoing youth empowerment initiative that is continuously promoted through curriculum and established organization programs. This is how we will accomplish a global cyber-culture adoption of safe and responsible internet interaction among youth.

i-SAFE is dedicated to exploring the best ways internet safety education can be effectively integrated into education across the globe with you. Visit http://international.isafe.org/en/index.php to find out more or to get involved in the program.

Carolyn Walpole, Director Education/Curriculum Development, i-SAFE Inc.