In 2000 and 2001, Media Awareness Network (MNet) conducted a survey of Canadian parents and young people to find out what they knew about the Internet, how they understood it and how they were using it. The results of the survey led MNet to conclude that there is a large gap between what kids are really doing on the Internet and what parents think they are doing.

In order to reduce the gap, parents have to become more knowledgeable about what their children are doing. They must also be able to talk to their children about the Internet so that the young people can benefit from the advantages of the Internet in a safe environment.

To assist parents in becoming better informed and in promoting safe, wise and responsible use of the Internet in their children, MNet suggests that libraries:

• Recognize the annual Web Awareness Day celebrated in February at the national, provincial and local levels;
  
  
• Hold a Web awareness workshop where the activities of young people online are demonstrated with the advantages and the risks and with ideas and suggestions for parents on how to guide their kids; and
  
  
• Plan events for a group of parents or children or a mixed group of both. At these events, you can use Parenting the Net Generation, a public education workshop included in the Web Awareness Workshop Series for Librarians (see link on right sidebar) to identify cybermarketing strategies targeted at young people, to teach children how to protect their privacy, and to help children develop the skills to evaluate online information.

In addition, MNet suggests a number of activities that you can organize for parents, young people or a mixed group of each. The aim of these activities is to develop children’s skills in the following areas:

• to evaluate online information so they can identify misinformation;
  
  
• to recognize the strategies that commercial sites use to attract children and to draw them into providing personal information that invades their privacy.

Research Relay

Participants are asked to look for information in the library or on the Net in order to compare the types of resources that are available to them and to time how quickly they can find what they are looking for.

Hoax? Scholarly Research? Personal Opinion? You Decide!

This activity allows young people to evaluate the quality of online resources according to five criteria: accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency and scope.

Online Marketing to Kids: Strategies and Techniques

Participants are asked to become familiar with the different techniques that cybermarketers use to get personal information from young surfers.

THE ISSUES

Internet Security

Cybermarketing and Personal Privacy on the Internet

Research and the Evaluation of Online Information

Internet Citizenship

BECOMING INVOLVED

Web Awareness for Parents

Web Awareness for Young People