Internet Safety

1:An Ensign to the Nations: A light to the world by President Gordon B. Hinckley

2: I watched a video by David A. Bednar. He spoke about the dangers of involving our lives too much in the virtual world. I really enjoyed his talk because it is so relevant to life today and the dangers that are so evident in all types of media. He also spoke about downloading music and involving ourselves in illegal activities on the internet.

3:Take-aways: My most important take-aways from the readings were the overall impact that media, music, and addiction to just the internet has on the family. I know that my grandmother spends all day on the computer, part of the time doing family history, but I’ll say she has very nice, large farm that she cares for on her Facebook. I know she spends a lot of time doing that. Many in my family have become addicted to some of the games Facebook has to offer and they are always telling me about it. Once my mom made me get off my Facebook so she could take care of my farm, I didn’t even know that I had! Those are just a few examples, but the family is so important and I didn’t realize how significant the effect of the internet has. I know that the many sources of media in our life can distract us from what is most important, simply because of how time consuming it is. When you are away from your family like many college students are, they don’t realize these effects until they visit home, or get married. It is important now to monitor our involvement on the internet and with video games.

4:My source already was aware of many online challenges that students, parents, and educators struggle with today. He spoke about prevention techniques to keep kids safe including keeping the family computer in a public place readily visible to all who are around. He is also an advocate for having filtering on the home and school computers to keep kids off internet sites that could be potentially dangerous to them. He also told me how he feels that media of all kinds today including i-pods, cellphones, facebook, and other networking sites really are creating a community where people are always connected and communicating, without really communicating personally. Our resources today make staying connected easier, but the price we pay is losing out on those important person to person interactions.
I told him about some of the stories that I listened to and read about, his reaction was about like mine. We both know of the realities, but try to block them out. When hearing these stories it brings the reality back and we feel sorry for those individuals and their lack of knowledge to keep themselves safe. He expressed a great interest in making sure all who use the internet are taught how to protect themselves from dangers that exsist. He will definitely use it to educate his future family and also the students that he will influence in his secondary education classes.