Virginia to require mandatory Internet safety lessons in schools.
Virginia has become the first state to mandate that public schools offer internet safety classes for all grade levels. The classes are to protect young web users from internet-based crime, especially from sexual predators using the internet to lure young children into becoming victims of sexual crimes. According to a 2006 study by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, about 13 percent of internet users ages 10 to 17 received unwanted sexual solicitations. Other states like Texas and Illinois have passed internet safety education laws, but they don’t make the courses mandatory. I am not sure how the mandatory classes are to be implemented in Virginia. Will students from 1st grade through 12th grade be required to take mandatory classes for every grade? In other words will students be required to have mandatory classes for each year of school from 1st to 12th? That seems to be a bit excessive. If the study shows that 90 percent of those targeted for sexual solicitation were teens what is the purpose of requiring mandatory classes for 1st graders? Should not the mandatory classes be targeted for when a student first becomes a teenager? This may be a naive statement on my part but shouldn’t young children be tutored on how to protect themselves from exploitation on the internet by the parents? The role of schools should be to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, the traditional teachings of schools. It seems that schools are now teaching sex education, internet protection, political correctness, and all sorts of other topics that should not be taught in schools. When will a child have the time to learn the skills needed to make him a productive and successful member of society if all his/her time is being spent on all these other topics? It should be the parents who attend classes on sex education and internet safety, if needed, and then instruct their children at home. It is not the job of schools to replace parents. What is needed is for parents to become more effective parents and do what parents are supposed to do; protect, nurture, and raise their children to become responsible adults some day.
