An Education on Internet Safety, by Caitlin, year 10

I have always felt that there are certain subjects on which we are over educated; for example, the topic of internet safety. Every year we are taught all about the dangers of the internet, sometimes more than once a year. It's just too much. I think that most people actually take things less seriously; because they are shown these 'Think u Know' videos from 2008 and they're way too busy laughing at the mention of 'MySpace' and Windows XP to take any of it seriously. It's actually a topic I'm quite interested so I might be slightly more attentive during these assemblies if I was learning something new, but being told the exact same stories (and being shown the exact same videos) every time gets a little old.

I agree that children need to be taught about Internet safety, but I still remember what I was told when I was ten, and I haven't been told anything new since then, despite several new websites becoming popular and a lot of the information I was told then becoming irrelevant. My Facebook settings are on private, I don't post anything inappropriate on twitter, I don't view anything unsuitable online and I don't talk to strangers. Being told not to do things I already don't do feels a little like being wrongly accused and it seems rather patronising. I think that the majority of teenagers need to be given credit for having some common sense or at least need to hear something a little more relevant. Children need to stop being taught to fear the world and start being taught to live in it.