Media Awareness Network suggests a number of directions for those who are helping young people to develop a responsible and savvy approach to being online:

Make some clear and simples rules for using the Internet. Tell the kids what the rules are and display them so everyone can consult them.

Learn about the great kids’ sites. You will be able to bookmark them and make them available through the library’s portal.

Organize some online activities for kids to show them how to recognize marketing strategies aimed at them; how to avoid their pitfalls; how to protect their personal information; and how to assess the credibility of the information or site they have found.

The Media Awareness Network has also created some games that you can use for the activities planned for kids. You can promote these games through the reading club, the homework club and other programs in the library. Or you can use the games as the centrepiece of an event!

• Privacy Playground: The First Adventure of the Three CyberPigs (for ages 7-9)
  In this first adventure, the CyberPigs learn about online marketing, and about protecting their privacy as they surf the Internet
  
  
• CyberSense and Nonsense: The Second Adventure of the Three CyberPigs (for ages 9-11)
  In their second adventure, the CyberPigs explore the world of chat rooms and learn to distinguish between fact and fiction, and to detect bias and harmful stereotyping in online content.
  
  
• Jo Cool or Jo Fool (for grades 6–8)
  This interactive online game takes students through a series of mock sites that test their savvy surfing skills. The game ends with an online quiz that gives students an even more in-depth level of information.

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