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Internet Safety & Digital Responsibility

If you believe you are the victim of a crime using extortion or blackmail tactics online, retain all information regarding the incident (e.g., usernames, email addresses, websites or names of platforms used for communication, photos, videos, etc.) and immediately report it to:

Reporting these crimes can help law enforcement identify malicious actors and prevent further victimization.

New Resources

NEW - - Improving Well-Being Online

  • For Safer Internet Day (2022), ConnectSafely spoke to parents, educators and young people across the country to find out what’s on their minds when it comes to online safety and wellbeing in 2022. ConnectSafely took the questions and concerns — and a few of our own — to experts in online safety, parenting, bullying prevention, security, and executives at popular apps like Instagram, TikTok, and Roblox. The results were some great conversations with a wealth of advice and insights. To spark discussion at home and school, each video includes discussion prompts. These resources are helpful for encouraging positive, productive discussions about online wellness on Safer Internet Day and all year long.

CSSRC Tools and Resources

  • Sexting: New Legislation/HB17- 1302 (C.R.S. § 18-7-109)

    • Colorado law regarding juvenile sexting conduct (the electronic exchange of sexually graphic images) will change on January 1, 2018. This handout is designed to break down the tiered approach to charging under that law and simplify the legislation for school staff.

Common Sense Media

  • Common Sense is the leading independent nonprofit organization dedicated to helping kids thrive in a world of media and technology. Empowering parents, teachers, and policymakers by providing unbiased information, trusted advice, and innovative tools to help them harness the power of media and technology as a positive force in all kids' lives.

  • Protecting Student Privacy on Social Media

  • Parents Ultimate Guide to TikTok

Children's Safety Network (CSN)

  • National Resource Center for Injury and Violence Prevention is dedicated to working with state, territorial and community Maternal &, Child Health and Injury & Violence prevention programs to create an environment where all children and youth are safe and healthy. We work with states and territories to infuse knowledge, expertise, and leadership to reduce injury, hospitalization, disability and death for all children and youth.

  • Internet Safety: 2014 Resource Guide (Nov. 2014)

    • This resource guide provides links to organizations, programs, publications, and resources focused on Internet safety, as well as information on a variety of subtopics related to the Internet, including: alcohol and drugs, cyberbullying, sexting, social networking, and suicide and self-harm. Each item in this resource guide includes a short description and a link to the resource itself. Descriptions of reports, guides, toolkits, campaigns, websites, and initiatives are, in most cases, excerpted from the resources themselves while descriptions of research studies are excerpted from the study abstracts. 

ConnectSafely

  • ConnectSafely is for parents, teens, educators, advocates - everyone engaged in and interested in the impact of the social Web.

  • ConnectSafely also has all kinds of social-media safety tips for teens and parents, the latest youth-tech news and many other resources.

  • Parents' Guides for Social Media Sites: ConnectSafely.org is a project of Tech Parenting Group, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Palo Alto, Calif., and Salt Lake City, Utah. The forum is co-directed by Larry Magid of SafeKids.com and Anne Collier of NetFamilyNews.org, co-authors of MySpace Unraveled: What It Is and How to Use It Safely. (Peachpit Press, Berkeley, Calif. July 2006).

Cyber-Safety Action Guide

  • Created by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)

  • Click the links for various online companies and social media sites to learn their general hate speech policies, cyberbullying/ harassment policies, and how to report hate speech, cyberbullying, and harassment.

CyberSmart! Cyberbullying Awareness Curriculum

  • CyberSmart!,brings to educators and parents the CyberSmart! Cyberbullying Awareness Curriculum, a positive and empowering suite of K-12 lessons provided free to schools. These materials can facilitate prevention of cyberbullying at the classroom level, and help provide outreach to families and the community.

  • In developing these lessons, CyberSmart! adopted an integrated approach, examining all current research findings and using best practices from the fields of cyber security, school violence prevention, and character education to affect behavioral change. The new curriculum is designed to guide students to think and act creatively and critically, defining the problems and issues themselves, and thus "owning" them. Without this ownership, no behavioral change can occur.

Digital Futures Initiative "DFi" (Colorado based)

  • DFi provides the necessary tools and training programs for educators, law enforcement (SRO's) and parents to help them instruct kids on safer, more responsible internet and device usage and better manage specific challenges that arise - including substance use, cyberbullying, sexting, online predators, loss of emotional intelligence, distracted driving and more.

    • For Teachers

      • Free digital citizenship lessons for teachers to help students stay safe online & take control of their digital lives. Designed to keep kids engaged with timely, real-world examples.

    • For SRO's

      • Free content for SRO's to teach kids digital citizenship. Help kids take control over their lives with the only standardized curriculum developed for School Resource Officers by School Resource Officers. 

    • For Parents

      • Teach your kids good digital citizenship. Our free lessons cover internet use, tech addiction, substance abuse, safe driving, stranger danger, and more.

Facebook Guide for Educators: A Tool for Teaching and Learning

  • Published in June 2013 by the Education Foundation of the United Kingdom.

  • This guide looks at the challenges and opportunities of using Facebook in the classroom. It offers insight and practical advice into how social media can support traditional classroom learning, enable "out of hours" learning, facilitate communication between educators, students and parents, and enhance digital skills and citizenship.

  • While the examples are from schools in England, the information is applicable in Colorado.

  • CSSRC Staff Review - Sept. 2013

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Cyber Crime

  • This website includes information about cyber threats and scams, along with how to avoid common threats., There is also information about how to protect your computer and how to report a cyber crime incident.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Consumer Privacy and Identity Information

  • The FTC is the nation's consumer protection agency. The FTC works to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace. This website contains information on computer security, kids' online safety, protecting your identity, and repairing identity theft.

  • Safeguarding Your Child's Future | SYCF en Español

    • Child identity theft happens when someone uses a minor's personal information to commit fraud. A thief may steal and use a child's information to get a job, government benefits, medical care, utilities, car loans, or a mortgage. Avoiding, discovering, and undoing the damage resulting from the theft of a child's identity can be a challenge.

    • Published in May 2012.

iKeepSafe

International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP)

Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)

Internet Safety 101

  • Supported by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) this information is produced by Enough Is Enough (EIE), a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, emerged in 1994 as the national leader on the front lines to make the Internet safer for children and families. Since then, EIE has pioneered and led the effort to confront online pornography, child pornography, child stalking and sexual predation with innovative initiatives and effective communications.

Internet Safety for Kids

  • Infographic guide for parents on how to talk to children about internet safety. Also provides tips and resources on safe browsing for youth and adults.

Kids Matter Counseling

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

  • The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation whose mission is to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation, and prevent child victimization. NCMEC works with families, victims, private industry, law enforcement, and the public to assist with preventing child abductions, recovering missing children, and providing services to deter and combat child sexual exploitation.

  • The Netsmartz Workshop is an interactive, educational safety resource from the National Center for missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) for children aged 5 to 17, parents & guardians, educators, and law enforcement that uses age-appropriate, 3-D activities to teach children how to stay safe on the Internet. The NetSmartz Workshop was made possible via a public-private partnership with the United States Congress, United States Department if Justic's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, National Center for Missing &, Exploited Children, and Boy & Girls Clubs of America.

  • NetSmartz for Kids NetSmarz for Tweens NetSmartz for Teens

    • The NetSmartz Workshop is an interactive, educational safety resource from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) and Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) for children aged 5 to 17, parents, guardians, educators, and law enforcement that uses age-appropriate, 3-D activities to teach children how to stay safer on the Internet.

  • The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children provides a free service known as Take It Down, which helps minor victims, even if they are now an adult, but were victimized as a minor, with online image or video files, remove or stop the online sharing of nude, or sexually explicit content taken while under 18 years old. For more information, visit takeitdown.ncmec.org.

National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) Internet Safety

Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids about Being Online

Pew Internet and American Life Project

  • PEW analyze the social impact of digital technologies, and study attitudes about scientific research and innovation. Their focus is on how science and technology changes affect families, communities, education, health care and medicine, civic and political life, and workers' activities.

Privacy and Cloud Computing in Public Schools

  • This research report was published by the Fordham Law School Center on Law and Information Policy in December 2013.

  • School districts are increasingly turning to rapidly evolving technologies and cloud computing to satisfy their educational objectives and take advantage of new opportunities for cost savings, flexibility, and always-available service among others. As public schools in the United States rapidly adopt cloud-computing services, and consequently transfer increasing quantities of student information to third-party providers, privacy issues become more salient and contentious. The protection of student privacy in the context of cloud computing is generally unknown both to the public and to policy-makers. This study thus focuses on K-12 public education and examines how school districts address privacy when they transfer student information to cloud computing service providers.

  • The goals of the study are threefold: first, to provide a national picture of cloud computing in public schools, second, to assess how public schools address their statutory obligations as well as generally accepted privacy principles in their cloud service agreements, and, third, to make recommendations based on the findings to improve the protection of student privacy in the context of cloud computing.

NEW - - Protecting Sensitive and Personal Information from Ransomware-caused Data Breach

  • CISA has released this fact sheet to address the increase in malicious cyber actors using ransomware to exfiltrate data and then threatening to sell or leak the exfiltrated data if the victim does not pay the ransom.

Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance (TA) Center

  • The REMS Technical Assistance Center's primary goal is to support schools and school districts in emergency management, including the development and implementation of comprehensive emergency and crisis response plans. The Center disseminates information about emergency management to help school districts learn more about developing, implementing, and evaluating crisis plans.

  • Integrating Cybersecurity with Emergency Operations Plans (EOPs) for K-12 Education (Nov. 2014)

Real Crimes in Virtual Worlds: School Violence: Echoes from the Digital Playgrounds

  • Published in December 2013 by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance - Drexel University, and Drakontas.

  • This report focuses on how threatening behaviors among youth within online video games, virtual worlds, and social networks can pose real-world threats in schools. These online behaviors include bullying, threats, harassment, stalking, and abuse. The report highlights how virtual environments can help law enforcement, school resource officers, and school administrators become aware of real-world criminal intent, offers strategies for detecting and preventing online threats to improve school safety, and provides resources about suspicious or threatening online activities.

  • CSSRC Staff Review - Nov. 2014

Safe Online Surfing (SOS)

  • Launched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2012

  • This is a website where students can learn about cyber safety through games, videos, and other interactive features. It teaches kids in third through eighth grades how to recognize and respond to online dangers such as cyberbullying, online predators, and identity thieves.

  • Schools can compete with each other on a national level. Schools with the highest scores will earn an FBI-SOS trophy.

  • CSSRC Staff Review - April 2013

Safer Schools Together

Sammy's Guide to Internet Safety (AT&T)

Sammy's Guide provides a variety of interactive games, lessons, resources, and quizzes that teach you about how to stay safe online, what information should be kept private, how to combat cyber bullying, and much more. The guide teaches kids how to enjoy the internet safely while providing fun activities and games.

Social Media Toolkit: Step-by-Step Guide to Implementing a Social Media Strategy in Your School or District

StaySafeOnline.org

StopBullying.Gov | en Español

  • This official website of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services contains valuable resources about bullying awareness, prevention and intervention for kids and adults.

  • Cyberbullying

  • StopBullying Blog

Stop.Think.Connect.

Today.Com

That's Not Cool

  • Draw your own lines around what is, or is not, acceptable relationship behavior and seek help from your peers

Trends in Unwanted Online Experiences and Sexting: Final Report

U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

  • Critical Infrastructure Cyber Community C3 Voluntary Program

    • Because cybersecurity and physical security are increasingly interconnected, DHS has partnered with the critical infrastructure community to establish a voluntary program to encourage use of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Framework to strengthen critical infrastructure cybersecurity. The Critical Infrastructure Cyber Community C3 (pronounced "C-Cubed") Voluntary Program is the coordination point within the Federal Government for critical infrastructure owners and operators interested in improving their cyber risk management processes.

    • The C3 Voluntary Program aims to: 

      1. support industry in increasing its cyber resilience

      2. increase awareness and use of the Framework, and

      3. encourage organizations to manage cybersecurity as part of an all hazards approach to enterprise risk management.

    • Getting Started for Academia

      • This page is intended to increase cybersecurity awareness, incentivize cybersecurity, encourage the adoption of best practices, and implement a shared sense of responsibility for cybersecurity at universities and colleges.

    • Self Service Tools

      • Cyber Resilience Review

      • Access resources and no-cost, voluntary, non-technical assessments to evaluate an organization's operational resilience and cybersecurity practices.

  • Cyber Security Evaluation Tool (CSET)

    • A self-assessment tool that provides prioritized recommendations and enables users to assess their network and industrial control system security practices against industry and government standards.

  • United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT)

    • US-CERT strives for a safer, stronger Internet for all Americans by responding to major incidents, analyzing threats, and exchanging critical cybersecurity information with trusted partners around the world.

    • Visit this site to learn about cyber threats and security. Current alerts and bulletins provide information about security activity and issues.

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Web Link Disclaimer: The Colorado School Safety Resource Center (CSSRC) provides links from this site to external websites because of their potential interest or usefulness to the safe and positive school environment, an education community or the general public. It attempts to monitor such sites on a regular basis. However, the CSSRC cannot be responsible for the content of any site external to its own. Further, by linking to other sites, the CSSRC is not endorsing any particular product, practice, service, provider or institution, nor does it necessarily endorse views expressed or facts presented on these sites. In addition, neither the CSSRC nor any of its employees, makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information linked to from this site.

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Office of School Safety (OSS)
700 Kipling Street, Suite 1000
Denver, Colorado 80215

303-550-2737
CDPS_School_Safety_Center@state.co.us

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