Internet Safety For Teens

Alarming statistics from several studies have shown that teens are increasingly exposed to serious crimes on social media. For example, a study by Thorn in 2015 found that 55% of victims of domestic minor sex trafficking first made contact with their trafficker online. According to the National Institutes of Health, a full 75% of British teenagers reported that they have seen drugs for sale on Instagram.

Our educational programs aim to raise awareness amongst teens about the dangers of online crimes - from human trafficking to drugs to scams - and how to avoid them.

Workshops

On March 2020, ACCO launched our educational pilot program in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which was led by wildlife conservationist and Nelson Mandela Washington Fellow Shubert Mwarabu. Three hundred fifty students participated, along with eight teachers and three journalists from Wasafi FM Radio, Clouds FM Radio and ITV Tanzania.

The four-hour event included a students performance, stand up comedy sketch, and presentations by Shubert and ACCO Executive Director Gretchen Peters -- who presented virtually -- about online wildlife trafficking, romance scams and human trafficking. Afterwards, there was a “Think-Pair-Share'' activity supervised by Askia Thomas, the host from Nguva Secondary School.

The workshop was a huge success with more than 80% of participants saying they were now better able to identify cybercriminals and protect themselves from online crime. Some students even noted that they had already been approached online by people offering job opportunities, such as modeling in the UAE, which they worried were scams or even human traffickers. We agree -- and it made us realize the urgency of expanding our program.

As the pandemic eases, we hope to host more such workshops for communities that are vulnerable to online crimes. Watch this page for more announcements about our workshops on internet safety for teens.

Online Course

Teenagers love social media, but unfortunately so do criminals. Since tech firms appear to be more interested in growth and profits than keeping kids safe, we’ve launched our own online course designed to teach teenagers how to protect themselves from criminals online.

The online course is being taught by ACCO expert, Dr. Damien Huffer, who has more than 5 years of teaching experience at the collegiate level. The course will expose students to the methods that practitioners use to investigate online crime and also teaches them how to design their own research projects. Each week, we will discuss the different types of online crimes, as well as strategies for staying safe, including boosting your privacy settings, and tips for identifying online scammers.

The next available course will be taught Friday September 10 - Oct 8, five times a week 6-6:45 PM ET.

Do you want to keep your kids safe online? SIGN UP FOR THE COURSE