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I am helping to design a curriculum of "the dangers of the internet" for middle school students, any thoughts on ideas what points need attention?

The list so far:

Online Predators
Giving up personal information
Scams
Identity theft
Piracy

(Porn was brought up, but that is a tricky subject with all the politics around it.)

Any other thoughts?

Internet gambling. Never done it, but from what I understand, it's really easy to loose a lot of money pretty quickly.

Viruses and worms seem pretty obvious to me.

Being that its for students I'd make sure to mention source trustworthyness.
"Just because you read it on the internet doesn't make it true".

Middle school kids write papers and stuff, right?

So you want bullet points, and not an overall 'don't do stupid shit' warning? Ie, don't install untrusted software (malware), reveal personal information to complete stranger (predators/identity theft), and don't try to get something for nothing (scams). Someone in AU actually fell for a nigerian scam (to the tune of hundreds of thousands) and then WENT ON TABLOID TV to complain about how 'mean' the OBVIOUS SCAM was, and how anyone could have fallen for it and mortgaged his house on the word of an anonymous text line.

Some things (like browser sploits) are unavoidable, and some (like site hijacks with emails saying 'update ur pass lol') are only obvious if you are paying attention, but simply taking care and not trusting anonymous text-lines will avoid the vast majority of problems. Call me nuts, but every time I log in to my bank I check the URL line to make sure it's ACTUALLY the bank and the login link ACTUALLY goes there - simply 'trusting' email is stupid.

Internet gambling is bad in a different way - it's like regular gambling but with no physical limits. You don't have to move, you don't have to go to the ATM, and there's usually noone else around. You can sit there and blow your entire bank balance without having any of the usual 'gambling feedback'.

EDIT - IB, trust should be the big lesson. Trust, trust, do you trust this person and why? Why do you trust this website and why do you trust the software it's trying to install? Why do you trust anything an anonymous IM source says? Why give any privlidged information over an insecure channel? Trust should NOT be the default position with regards to the internet, EVER. Don't want it, don't trust it, don't need it? DELETE IT.

Sam Or I wrote:I am helping to design a curriculum of "the dangers of the internet" for middle school students, any thoughts on ideas what points need attention?

The list so far:

Online Predators
Giving up personal information
Scams
Identity theft
Piracy

(Porn was brought up, but that is a tricky subject with all the politics around it.)

Any other thoughts?

Definitely talk about misinformation. Many kids are unable to differentiate between a blog printing rumors and a reputable news source.

On a more general front, do a "everything is good in moderation" angle - the most of the hardcore WoW junkies are highschool students since they can afford it time-wise.

Maybe encourage the use of alternative browsers (Firefox)?

Discuss keeping the computer updated - Windows update and its settings. Antivirus software recommendations. Stress why this is important.

Phishing is a big one. The emails look real enough and people tend to comply when it says something like "Your Paypal account will be suspended if you don't do something". Someone who wouldn't fall for a nigerian scam could fall for phish.

Praxis wrote:

Sam Or I wrote:

Definitely talk about misinformation. Many kids are unable to differentiate between a blog printing rumors and a reputable news source.

Quoted for importance.

It's far easier to spread lies, misinformation or hatespeeches trough the internet these days

Biggest rule anyone can follow: If you don't know it won't fuck up your machine, then don't click the damn link. I don't care if they're offering you free porn/computers/cars/whatever.

Stress that nobody's going to ask you for your login and password to anything, ever, for any legitimate reason. If someone sends you an e-mail asking for a password, it's a scam, end of story, no matter what's in the header.

For everything you cover, I'd have a screen cap from a real life website or e-mail to show exactly what these scams look like. Shit like phishing keeps going on because it just looks so routine and unordinary. Hell, I once fell for it. I got the supposed e-mail from e-bay, clicked the link, and entered my username and password without thinking twice. Luckily about ten seconds later the clue bird pooped in my corner, and I went back to the real site, changed the password, and forwarded the e-mail to their spam team. Moral of the story; get hands on with it.

Deathstalker wrote:Phishing is a big one. The emails look real enough and people tend to comply when it says something like "Your Paypal account will be suspended if you don't do something". Someone who wouldn't fall for a nigerian scam could fall for phish.

Oh, and tell the kids not to forward chain emails. Ever. Or Chuck Norris will kill them in their sleep.

Sam Or I wrote:I am helping to design a curriculum of "the dangers of the internet" for middle school students, any thoughts on ideas what points need attention?

The list so far:

Online Predators
Giving up personal information
Scams
Identity theft
Piracy

(Porn was brought up, but that is a tricky subject with all the politics around it.)

Any other thoughts?

The #1 danger of the Internet: distraction from more important activities. For every person who's gotten scammed, raped, stalked, or trojaned because of the Internet, there are probably a hundred who have allowed Internet use to impact their academic or professional performance.

Speaking of which, it's Saturday night, shouldn't you be busy doing the wife?

Wicked Pilot wrote:Speaking of which, it's Saturday night, shouldn't you be busy doing the wife?

Not this late at night. She's not a late-night person. She prefers to do it in the morning on weekends.

Point out that nothing is free. Win a free iPod my ass... and seriously, if those ads aren't for dumb kids who think it's cool to shoot ducks and hit ninjas, who else is it targeted at?

Too many people I know click those damn links, give away their emails, their friends emails, and think they'll be getting the big screen tv or the xbox. Tell people not to send their friends stuff from funny sites by clicking the link that says "Send to a friend" because that's asking for your friend to kick your ass for all the spam they get.

Thanks guys. I appreciate the help.

The internet is just like real life, it it sounds too good to be true thats because it is.

A major one is assholes using the internet to stalk girls and groom them if they're underage. I have a friend from WoW that was groomed. She was young and he told her everything she wanted to hear from a guy. What a shame he convinced her to meet up and he tried to kidnap her.