Class activities for raising students' awareness of the importance of online safety

Dave Mainwood on his EFL Smart blog has created a series of good lesson plans that you can use for this.

I've had quite some success using Exposed (CEOP Video - Staying Safe Online) with various age groups of students (teenagers+) from intermediate upwards.
This lesson plan gets students to:

• watch a film about internet safety
• do some gap-fill and matching exercises
• practise present simple
• discuss ways to stay safe online

It centres on a well-made, engaging video where a teenage student gets hounded by her classmates because her boyfriend lets compromising photos of her get published on a social media site. I've found that students react positively to the video and the pre and post-viewing activities work well.

Sexting: is technology endangering teenagers?
This lesson plan gets students to:

• listen to a radio debate on teenagers and technology
• discuss the dangers and benefits of new technologies
• do a sentence matching exercise
• prepare and write an IELTS style question on the subject

It centres on a radio debate on sexting - using a smartphone to send indecent images to to others. This leads to a discussion about whether teenagers should be prevented from using these technologies or whether they should be trusted to develop their self-awareness of these types of gadgets. There are accompanying online activities that focus on language and comprehension plus the optional follow up writing task.

Should parents follow their children on facebook?
This lesson plan gets students to:

• discuss social networks
• listen to teenagers discussing social networks
• listen to some teenagers and parents talking about their online relationships and to order their comments
• look at some language used for writing - connectives
• write a discursive essay on the topic