County students attend online safety presentation

This December, over 400 Grade 4 to 12 students got some muchneeded schooling on internet safety courtesy of The White Hatter team.

The award-winning White Hatter Team visited Yellowhead County to remind our students of best digital safety practices. The team includes Darren Laur, a former Staff Sergeant with the Victoria City Police Department, and his son, Brandon, who recently received his Master’s Degree in Professional Communications. Both have devoted their professional lives to helping the public navigate the darker side of the internet.

This event was put on in partnership with both Grande Yellowhead and Parkland School divisions. Key messages for digital safety included:

• Old cell phones should not be sold, even after a factory reset, as some of the information can still be accessed.

• Six digit passwords are optimal for improving a phone’s unlock security.

• Finally and probably the most important, kids should remember that “Everything they do online is public, permanent, searchable, exploitable, copy-able and for sale.” The team stressed that banks, colleges, universities, and employers are now all searching applicants’ profiles online to match their credentials.

The White Hatter Team also facilitated a session of tips for parents, noting that the most important thing a parent can do to keep their kid(s) safe online is to keep Wi-Ficapable devices out of kids’ bedrooms. Devices should be used with parental supervision until parents feel their kids can be trusted to use their devices responsibly.

Darren also impressed on parents that “The majority of kids are […] really good digital citizens. Only a small percentage of them aren’t and it’s that small percentage that gets a lot of the media attention and as a result, a lot of parents think that all the kids are doing bad stuff when in fact, that’s not true.”

Yellowhead County Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) would like to thank the White Hatter Team, Grand Yellowhead School Division, and Parkland School Division for helping to provide this much needed education for our children, youth, and families.