Cyber Security Education

This week we were asked to read an article entitled Teaching Children Cyber Security and Ethics produced by the Cyber Security Industry Alliance (2005). This article addresses many of the potential dangers our children face in the online world today such as phishing, spam, identity theft, etc., and poses the question “Who does the teaching?” Should parents take on this responsibility? Should teachers be responsible for designing a cyber security curriculum? The CSIA contends that these attempts would only lead to spotty results. Instead, national effort should be made to educate children about cyber security and safety, with parents and teachers playing critical roles in achieving the overall goal. Simply having this responsibility placed on teachers within the K-12 environment would not be the most effective measure to addressing this problem. Students, and the public in general, would be made much more aware of the problems of cyber security and the potential solutions if there were a nationally sponsored cyber awareness program.

I very much agree that cyber awareness among children is a critical need. Children now grow up in a multimedia world and have access to people and information in ways that children didn’t have twenty years ago. The implications of this are that people and information which may be inappropriate and even dangerous for our children may also reach them unless precautions are taken and children are taught how to protect themselves. “Just as we teach our children ‘right from wrong’ in the physical world, we must ensure that the same lessons are taught in the cyber world as well” (CSIA, 2005).

Do you see a need for a national cyber security awareness program? If so, what aspects of this program would you like to see put in place (i.e. legislation, advertising campaigns, training, national curriculum standards, etc.)?

References:
Cyber Security Industry Alliance. (2005, July). Teaching Children Cyber Security and Ethics. www.csialliance.org.