A three-county initiative is aiming to make the internet safer for students in the Poconos.
At an announcement at Wallenpaupack Area High School Friday officials said the internet is a tool for students to learn but also a virtual playground for internet predators, identity theft and cyber bullying.
Jennifer Swendsen, a senior at Wallenpaupack Area High School, said some teens at her school abuse the internet. "They will go and hack other people's MySpaces and put up inappropriate things about other people," Swendsen.
Which is why the district attorneys from Wayne, Monroe and Pike counties have banded together with the help of a $20,000 from the Verizon Foundation. They announced Friday the launch of a program to make the internet safer for the nearly 50,000 students in the eight school districts in the tri-county area.
"We think the project represents an unprecedented and a really unique cooperative effort, the scope that really hasn't been seen," said Wayne County District Attorney Michael Lehutsky.
It's called I-Safe.org and is an internet-based curriculum that teaches students through grade 12 how to be good cyber citizens, including safely using social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, how to avoid internet predators as well as how to keep private info private.
The I-Safe program is not just available to students in school either. Since the program is online students and parents can actually access it at home.
Some area schools used to have the I-Safe program a few years ago until it was cut because of budgetary issues.
Swendsen remembers using it and said she thinks it works.
"I think it really does help students understand a lot more of what you shouldn't do," Swendsen said.
The I-Safe program should become available to all students in Wayne, Monroe and Pike counties in the next few weeks.
At an announcement at Wallenpaupack Area High School Friday officials said the internet is a tool for students to learn but also a virtual playground for internet predators, identity theft and cyber bullying.
Jennifer Swendsen, a senior at Wallenpaupack Area High School, said some teens at her school abuse the internet. "They will go and hack other people's MySpaces and put up inappropriate things about other people," Swendsen.
Which is why the district attorneys from Wayne, Monroe and Pike counties have banded together with the help of a $20,000 from the Verizon Foundation. They announced Friday the launch of a program to make the internet safer for the nearly 50,000 students in the eight school districts in the tri-county area.
"We think the project represents an unprecedented and a really unique cooperative effort, the scope that really hasn't been seen," said Wayne County District Attorney Michael Lehutsky.
It's called I-Safe.org and is an internet-based curriculum that teaches students through grade 12 how to be good cyber citizens, including safely using social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, how to avoid internet predators as well as how to keep private info private.
The I-Safe program is not just available to students in school either. Since the program is online students and parents can actually access it at home.
Some area schools used to have the I-Safe program a few years ago until it was cut because of budgetary issues.
Swendsen remembers using it and said she thinks it works.
"I think it really does help students understand a lot more of what you shouldn't do," Swendsen said.
The I-Safe program should become available to all students in Wayne, Monroe and Pike counties in the next few weeks.
