You've heard of Totin' Chip, which focuses on safety with cutting tools. The BSA has now introduced CyberCHIP that educates scouts on how to be safe online. A primer on the program will be offered as a class at our University of Scouting in May. Here are the details from Jim Yencer...
For thousands of years humans and our societies have been developing strategies to protect us from harm from predators, plants, the weather, and each other. We have developed mechanisms to protect ourselves, but they are not perfect, and we are always at risk from these dangers. However, in the last 20 years we have been exposed to a new and growing threat…the internet. We want our kids to be safe, expecting that the “internet” will take care of them for us, thinking that the internet is basically harmless fun. This is NOT the case, and our kids can easily become unintentional victims or perpetrators on the internet, simply because they don’t have the knowledge to protect themselves.
For thousands of years humans and our societies have been developing strategies to protect us from harm from predators, plants, the weather, and each other. We have developed mechanisms to protect ourselves, but they are not perfect, and we are always at risk from these dangers. However, in the last 20 years we have been exposed to a new and growing threat…the internet. We want our kids to be safe, expecting that the “internet” will take care of them for us, thinking that the internet is basically harmless fun. This is NOT the case, and our kids can easily become unintentional victims or perpetrators on the internet, simply because they don’t have the knowledge to protect themselves.
What dangers are on the internet? Our kids can meet bad
people online pretending to be kids their age to lure them into something bad
and sinister. Perpetrators could be stealing their identity and using it for
all sorts of nefarious deeds. They could be victims of cyber-bullying and will
be too embarrassed to tell you about it. They could download virus’ that could
infect your computer and share your families personal or banking information
with people who know how to exploit it. They could be chatting with a friend on
a new social app and share their thoughts without a filter, unintentionally
becoming abusive to others without understanding the affect their words may
have, assuming what they say online is innocuous when in reality it is hurtful
and a form of bullying.
But all this new access came so fast that we have not
developed strategies to teach our kids how to use it properly, and where to
find the dangers that lurk around every corner or on many web sites and social
media applications. Limiting a kids access to the internet today is virtually
impossible. If they don’t access it from a desktop or a laptop pc, then they
will using a tablet or an iPod. Perhaps they’ll use a Smart TV, or a Smart
phone. If not those, then they will go to school and access the internet there,
or the library and use their computers and internet access. The point is that
it is virtually impossible to limit a child’s access to the internet, something
that is now so common that it is assumed everyone has access at home.
There are steps you can take to teach kids how to be safe
online. This access is so new that parents don’t think to teach their kids how
to use the internet safely, and most of the time they don’t have the knowledge
or tools to teach them effectively. As a Scout Leader we do have resources that
can be used to teach our Scouts how to use the internet properly and safely, to
avoid the pitfalls so many children are falling into these days. It is our
responsibility to make better citizens of the boys in our unit, something that
has been one of the three aims of Scouting since its inception 80 years before
the internet. With internet access, devices, and apps growing at an exponential
rate, the task falls on our shoulders to also make them good citizens of our
new virtual society.
To that end, the BSA has introduced the cyberCHIP,
aimed at making the Cyber world safe for the Scout. The TOTIN’ CHIP is intended
to teach Scouts how to use knives, saws, and axes safely, and the FIREM’N CHIT
teaches scouts how to build fires safely. Similarly, the cyberCHIP teaches
Scouts how to be online safely. This is not something that is currently
required for rank advancement, but it would not surprise me if it does become
required in the future. However, for now it is something that is required only
for technology Merit Badges like Programming, Digital Technology. And the
requirements are not a walk in the park, they are challenging, but so is
internet safely, so it is appropriately challenging.
To develop this new program the BSA partnered with Netsmartz®, an interactive and
educational program of the National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children® (NCMEC) that provides age-appropriate resources to help teach
children how to be safer on- and offline. Their website has content specific to
children ages 5-17, as well as adults in various roles such as parents or
guardians, educators, or law enforcement. This new challenge, the cyberCHIP, is
something that should be required in every unit but is slow to be adopted. It
is up to us, Scouting’s Leaders, to recognize the dangers the internet has, and
to work with our Scouts to be safe online, in every aspect. Scouting’s three
aims, character development, citizenship training, and personal fitness, can
all be linked to the internet in one way or another.
For more information about the cyberCHIP program, come to
our University
of Scouting on May 9th and register for class 404, Internet
Safety and Cell Phone Use. You can also use a search engine to find information
online about the cyberCHIP, but you may also want to look into a similar
program offered by the US Scouting Service Project, the Internet Scout Patch.
Iroquois Trail Council’s University of Scouting… http://itcbsa.org/Joomla/images/Forms/2015/2015UniversityofScoutingRegistrationPacket.pdf
BSA’s cyberCHIP… http://www.scouting.org/Training/YouthProtection/CyberChip.aspx
Netsmartz… http://www.netsmartz.org/scouting
USSSP Internet Scout Patch … http://usscouts.org/InternetScoutPatch.asp
