On February 4th, parents gathered in the library to eat delicious food and have some good conversations about online safety. It can be hard to imagine that elementary school is the place where those conversations start, but studies have shown that getting into the habit of talking to your child about their online activities should start early. For those of you who wanted to make it but weren't able to, here's the powerpoint part of the evening, with resource links below. To find out more: "My Pal, My Bully: greatest internet threat to teens may be teens themselves," an article from the L.A. Times about the recent Harvard study on online safety. iKeepSafe Internet Safety Coalition Cyber-safe kids, cyber-savvy teens by Nancy Willard, a practical and thoughtful book and web resource for parents, with guidelines for kids of all ages. I based much of my presentation on principles and suggestions from this book. Many of you had suggestions and recommendations, some of which we were able to include in the presentation above.

Please leave other suggestions in the comments or email them to me, or even drop by the library. I will add your suggestions as I get them. Together we'll be able to come up with great resources and tools to share with our community!