On Tuesday, October 3, 2023, the Rice student body gathered in the gymnasium to listen to a speech given by Scott Driscoll about how high school students can stay safe online. Rice parents also got in on the learning when they came to Rice at 5 p.m.
that same day to listen to a presentation of their own.
Scott Driscoll knows a lot about online safety, especially in relation to children, because he spent the majority of his 33-year-long career in law enforcement as a youth officer in a Connecticut Police Department. He went on to join a federal task force that works to prevent crimes against minors online.
In 2007 he founded Internet Safety Concepts and started to travel around the country teaching people young and old how to stay safe online and be careful about their digital footprint or, as Driscoll calls it, a digital tattoo.
The presentations for students and parents touched on similar topics however they were not the same.
The students learned more about things we could do to stay safe online, like making your account private, going on Ghost Mode– a location setting on Snapchat–, and knowing the difference between friends, followers, and strangers.
“I liked his approach a lot because it didn’t make me feel shamed for having these apps or doing a certain thing,” said Junior Maddy Hammond, “instead, it showed how I can do things differently to be more safe.”
The parents learned about settings available on different social platforms to create more privacy, how social media can create bullying and peer pressure, and to not take away technology, but to instead have open communication with their children about it.
“His presentation was informative,” said Erin Dye, mother of multiple Rice students. “He provided easy tips and tricks for parents to use as we navigate the internet safely.”
Driscoll’s organization sends out emails to schools all across the country to elicit customers and the administrations decided to invite him to Rice because they enjoyed the way that he approached the topic, empowering teens and parents instead of lecturing them.
“Often, from a school perspective, issues around misuse of social media are dealt with once something bad has already happened, and it’s often too late to remedy,” said Daniel Routher, the associate principal. “We wanted a speaker on this topic early in the year that would help to educate our families on the best practices around social media as a preventative measure to address this, making us more proactive than reactive to the issues teens and parents alike face with these societal issues.”
The majority of Rice students and parents enjoyed Driscoll’s presentation and the way he approached the topic of online safety.
If you are interested in learning more about online safety for Driscoll go to the Internet Safety Concepts website: https://internetsafetyconcepts.com/
Just a reminder to all high school students: if you or a friend is being harassed online, please go to a trusted adult. Be kind. Be respectful. Be safe.
