Teaching online safety: skills beat scare tactics
Online-safety education works best when it builds skills and involves families. Warnings alone don't do much.
A major review by University of New Hampshire researchers found that scare tactics and simple warnings are unlikely to work. Programs that teach skills, let kids practice what to do, involve families and run over several sessions show more promise, and anti-bullying education does appear to reduce cyberbullying. The US Surgeon General and APA both recommend digital-literacy training.
What the research found
- Youth internet-safety education review (Finkelhor, Walsh, Jones, Mitchell & Collier, 2021): "Warning messages alone are not effective." Educational programs do appear to reduce cyberbullying. The authors recommend integrated, multi-session, skills-based programs that involve family and peers and let kids practice responses.
- Health bodies: the US Surgeon General (2023) recommends supporting digital media literacy, and the APA recommends social media literacy training before and during use.
Where experts disagree
Few stand-alone internet-safety programs have been rigorously evaluated, and there's very little research on teaching young people to spot scams. The review also disclosed funding from Facebook and the WHO.
How this shaped OurDot
OurDot's lessons are about three minutes, skills-based and age-banded (6–9, 10–12, 13–17). A new lesson opens each day, with refreshers at one week, one month and three months, and guardians can see progress to talk it through. Our lessons haven't been formally evaluated, so we call them evidence-informed, not evidence-based.
What we don't claim
- That our lessons are proven to keep kids safe.
- That they are an "evidence-based curriculum."