Peer-reviewed article
Online risks and information protection of children on the pages of pedagogical press of the USA
Аліна Паукова ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This article reviews how American pedagogical publications address online risks and safety for children. It categorizes online dangers including cyberbullying, content risks, and communication risks, and describes American legislation protecting children online. The study identifies key protection strategies including media literacy, critical thinking skills, and awareness-raising for parents, teachers and children. It emphasizes the knowledge and skills children need to evaluate online information and behave safely on the internet.
Key points
- Online risks are classified into four main types: content risks, communication risks, electronic risks, and cyberbullying
- Cyberbullying includes nine forms: trolling, harassment, impersonation, denigration, happy slapping, fraud, online alienation, sexting, and cybergrooming
- Main protection strategies include media literacy, critical thinking development, and awareness-raising for parents, children and teachers
- Children need skills to evaluate online content sources, data quality, and website structure to select information critically
- American legislation and school system strategies aim to implement child protection on the internet
Limitations
This is a literature review or position paper analyzing existing publications rather than empirical research; it does not present original data on intervention outcomes or effectiveness, so we cannot determine what actually works to protect children online.
Abstract
The Internet is the most popular mass media among young people. It not only provides children with powerful learning and entertainment opportunities, but it is also an environment where they can face many risks. That is why the problem of information protection of children, especially online safety, is one of the priority areas for the development of pedagogy and education not only in the USA but also in Ukraine. Publications array focusing on the main methods and tools for overcoming online risks has been analyzed. The article deals with the main types and classifications of online risks: content risks, communication risks, electronic risks and cyberbullying. Cyberbullying classification is provided: trolling, harassment, impersonation, denigration, happy slaping, fraud, online alienation, sexting and cybergrooming. The author highlights American legislation on child protection on the Internet. The strategies for implementing the above legislation into the American School System are described. The main strategies of information protection of children are identified and analyzed: media literacy, critical thinking, awareness of parents, children and teachers about online risks, adherence to the rules of online behavior. The terms media literacy, media education and critical thinking are revealed. The article provides criteria for evaluating online resources that help children effectively analyze, comprehend, and critically select information. Issues of content, source and data evaluation, site structure that develop critical skills for evaluating an online resource are described. The author defines and analyzes the main tasks of lessons for the formation of information protection of children on the Internet. The basic knowledge and skills that children need to have for working safely on the Internet are identified.