As technology advances, it is more important than ever for parents to help their children learn how to use the internet safely. Social stories are a great way to teach teens, particularly those with unique learning needs, essential internet safety skills.
These stories can help kids understand why certain rules and behaviors are important when using the internet.
By teaching your children the ins and outs of Internet safety, you can help keep them safe online.
What Internet Safety Skills Should I Teach?
Staying safe online – it’s a topic that is so huge, it warrants an entire book, rather than just a single post!
There’s lots to teach your teen if you want to keep him or her safe online. So where do you start?
Some of the most important Internet safety skills to teach include:
- Standards for what can be done online (and what should not be done online)
- How to use safety features like two-factor authentication and password protection
- Family values around private versus public information and what’s safe to share
- How to discriminate between pop-ups, malicious emails, and malware attacks
- How to identify and handle cyberbullying
There are several risks present online, many of which are also dangerous for adults and not just teens. These include:
- Fixation on games or social networking sites, which often results in compulsive internet use that limits social interactions
- Exposure to inappropriate material, like images of death, violence, or pornography
- Manipulation or predation from online predators
- Cyberbullying
How Do You Teach Teens About Internet Safety?
There are countless ways to teach teens about Internet safety. Staying involved and keeping an open line of communication are the best things you can do to make sure your teens don’t find themselves in trouble online. Avoidance is not the best course of action here.
Some other effective ways to teach your teen about Internet safety are:
- Use visual supports – provide your teen with pictures or other visual reminders of Internet safety tips, such as a checklist of Internet dos and don’ts
- Make lists – you may find it helpful to create lists of acceptable (or unacceptable) websites
- Roleplay – role-play multiple scenarios with your teen about Internet safety, all while having an open conversation about why the demonstrated scenarios are safe or not
- Use acronyms – there are some helpful acronyms you can use, such as PLAY IT SAFE, that may help your teen with unique learning needs remember the ins and outs of online safety
As the parent or educator of a teen with unique learning needs, communication is essential when it comes to Internet safety.
Social stories may offer you an easy way to begin the conversation. More on this below!
What Are Social Stories?
Social stories are often used by teachers, coaches, family members, and other people in students’ lives to help enforce the development of various social skills.
They work well because they address specific issues that children with unique learning needs might have, such as social communication, understanding emotions, and body language.
They are so effective because they can be presented in multiple formats, including videos, singing, storytelling, computer-based presentations, and more. The goal when writing and using social stories is to customize them to the student as much as possible, using pictures of the child when you can and situations that they might actually find themselves in.
Social stories almost always have four sentences: descriptive, directive, perspective, and affirmative sentences.
Above all, social stories contain positive language (at least 50% positive language, in most cases). They are descriptive and don’t contain harsh, authoritative terms like “you should,” “you must,” or “you need to.”
How to Use Social Stories to Teach Internet Safety Skills
Social stories can be incredibly helpful for parents and teachers of teens with unique learning needs. After all, they help to address common concerns related to online safety without totally banning its use entirely.
The Internet poses risks, of course, but also has countless benefits. It can be used as a tool to find information and to stay entertained. Many young people with autism or other unique learning needs find that Internet communication is easier than face-to-face communication.
Social stories can help learners with unique learning needs better understand the complexities of Internet safety – all in a more accessible, student-friendly way.
Make Your Own Social Stories
One of the most effective ways to use social stories to teach internet safety skills is to write your own, tailoring them to your teen’s particular online safety struggles.
You can write out an Internet safety scenario in story form, then read it with your teen. This can reinforce key concepts about how to stay safe online.
Examples of Scenarios for Social Stories
If you’re just beginning the conversation about Internet safety with your teen, you might not be sure where to start. Some scenarios you might include or cover in your social stories are:
- How to go about the process of installing a pop-up blocker
- What to do if you encounter criminal or inappropriate images for websites
- Where to go for help and how to ask for help if they are being cyberbullied
- Identifying cyberbullying
- What to do if they believe they are interacting with a predator (and what information to avoid giving out)
- When it’s okay to give out personal information online (like filling out college forms)
- Internet etiquette (what’s okay and not okay to say to others on social media)
- Navigating the benefits of the Internet (like where to find information)
- Filling out online forms
Use Plenty of Visuals
Part of the reason why social stories are so effective for those with unique learning needs is that they incorporate lots of visuals.
That’s one of the major attractions of the Internet in the first place, after all. People consistently use recognizable visuals, like emoticons, to display their body language, vocal tone, and facial expressions – something that can be hard for individuals with unique learning needs to understand.
Combine With Other Tools
Social stories are helpful on their own, but are even more effective when they’re paired with other tools, such as Google’s Internet Safety Curriculum, Be Internet Awesome. This resource, along with some of the other resources linked to in this article, can be beneficial for parents and teachers who are trying to teach their students about safety risks online.
Practice Frequent Repetitions
The beauty of the internet is that it affords frequent opportunities for learning through repetition. Make sure you back this up by frequently repeating your social story teachings to make sure your child has a good understanding of what is expected in terms of online behavior.
Customize As Much as Possible
At one point, it was believed that social stories only worked well with higher-functioning individuals. However, it’s now widely understood that they can be helpful for any student, including those with more challenging learning needs.
Just make sure you customize the social story as much as you can. Use pictures of the student and incorporate scenarios that they are actually encountering. If you’re creating social stories for a child with more pronounced needs, you may want to limit the social story to just one concept at a time, perhaps with pictures added in for extra meaning.
To check out a sample social story, download our free .pdf online safety social story for teens.
You can get more detailed information on how to write a social story by checking out this past post.
Do Social Stories Work for Teenagers?
Yes! Social stories work well for kids of all ages, including older children who are rapidly approaching adulthood.
The key here is in making a social story that is relevant. You don’t want to focus a social story for an older teenager on concepts that they’ll find juvenile and silly – like how to log in to a website.
Instead, you’ll want to focus on more pertinent issues like navigating cyberbullying, dealing with viruses, and other situations.
Social stories for teenagers can be much longer – but remember, the teen should always be the main character.
Keep Your Teen Safe Online With Social Stories
If you’re struggling to communicate with your teen about how to stay safe online, you’re not alone. In fact, nearly half of all parents of teens aged 12-15 report that they have a hard time controlling their teen’s screen time.
Using social stories can help, particularly for teens with unique learning needs.
With the prevalence of technology in our lives, it’s more important than ever to teach our kids how to stay safe online. These social stories are a great way to help your teen learn the necessary skills to protect themselves from cyberbullying, predators, and other dangers lurking on the internet.
Further Reading
- InternetMatters.org: Teens (14+) Online Safety Advice
- CSEA: Internet Safety for Teens with ASD
- Rebekah Pierce: Social Stories For Adolescents And Young Adults
- Cerebra: Learning Disabilities, Autism, and Internet Safety: A Guide for Parents
- Rebekah Pierce: How to Write a Social Story (A Step-by-Step Guide)