The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre hosts an excellent resource for helping students learn how to be responsible digital citizens. ThinkUKnow offers videos, games, and lessons for students ages five through sixteen. The site is divided into five sections; 5-7, 8-10, 11-16, a section for parents, and a section for teachers.
The 5-7 section of ThinkUKnow feature a cartoon video series titled
Hector's World. Hector's World is designed to educate students about safe use of the Internet and computers in general. Through the cartoons students learn about things like protecting their personal information and asking a trusted adult for help when necessary. Each episode of Hector's World is accompanied by a coloring book that you can download as a PDF.
The
8-10 section of ThinkUKnow uses games to teach students about protecting their identities online, how to interact with peers, and how to recognize scams and other online traps.
In the
11-16 section of ThinkUKnow students watch a series of videos featuring teenagers who find themselves faced with dilemmas about how to interact with others online. At the end of each video segment students can choose what they would do next.
The
teachers' resource section of ThinkUKnow offers dozens of fact sheets, posters, and lesson plans to use in conjunction with the videos and games of ThinkUKnow.
ThinkUKnow for parents features a short video guide to helping students stay safe online. Parents will also find fact and tip sheets.
One thing for readers in the U.S. and Canada to note about ThinkUKnow is that it is based in the UK. That means that some of the slang and terminology used in the videos on ThinkUKnow might have to be explained to your students.
