Abstract
Information and communication technology (ICT) has become part of the daily life of school learners. School learners have access to ICT devices and the internet to improve education, to socialise and for entertainment. Using ICT devices connected to the internet has a vast number of advantages to school learners. However, the negative side of using these devices (e.g. cyber risks and threats) can unfortunately have long-lasting emotional and physical effects on growing school learners. Cyber risks and treats include cyber bullying, access to inappropriate material and identity theft. School learners can become cyber victims if they are not educated in the dangers of cyber risks and threats and in the correct way of protecting themselves and their information. Currently, the South African school system provides for limited to no teaching of cyber safety awareness. This research proposes that cyber safety awareness programmes be integrated into the school system through the life orientation education stream. The research created and tested a proposed educator’s guide on cyber safety awareness based on the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) approach to grade 4 and grade 6 learners in South African schools. The research included a pre- and post-test to investigate whether cyber safety awareness increased through the teaching of cyber safety within a classroom setup.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahad, A.D., Anshari, M.: Smartphone habits among youth. Int. J. Cyber Behav. Psychol. Learn. 7(1), 65–75 (2017)
Alsied, S.M., Pathan, M.M.: The use of computer technology in EFL classroom: advantages and implications. Int. J. Engl. Lang. Transl. Stud. 1(1), 61–71 (2013)
Badenhorst, C.: Legal responses to cyber bullying and sexting in South Africa. In: Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention (2011). Available at: http://www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/Research-Projects/Researching-Childrens-Rights/pdf/Issue-Paper-10---Legal-reponses-to-cyberbullying-and-sexting-in-SA.pdf. Accessed 27 March 2016
Brown, C.F., Demaray, M.K., Secord, S.M.: Cyber victimization in middle school and relations to social emotional outcomes. Comput. Hum. Behav. 35, 12–21 (2014)
Chandrashekhar, A.M., Muktha, G.S., Anjana, D.K.: Cyberstalking and cyberbullying?: effects and prevention measures. Imperial J. Interdisc. Res. 2(3), 95–102 (2016)
Furnell, S.: Jumping security hurdles. Comput. Fraud Secur. 2010(6), 10–14 (2010)
Govender, I., Skea, B.: Teachers’ understanding of e-safety: an exploratory case in KZN South Africa. Electron. J. Inf. Syst. Developing Countries. 70(5), 1–17 (2015)
Heflin, H., Shewmaker, J., Nguyen, J.: Impact of mobile technology on student attitudes, engagement, and learning. Comput. Educ. 107, 91–99 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.01.006
Huda, M., Jasmi, K.A., Hehsan, A., Mustari, M.I., Shahrill, M., Basiron, B., Gassama, S.K.: Empowering children with adaptive technology skills: careful engagement in the digital information age. Int. Electron. J. Elem. Educ. 9(3), 693–708 (2017)
Kritzinger, E.: Short-term initiatives for enhancing cyber-safety within South African schools email. SACJ 28(1) (2016). http://doi.org/10.18489/sacj.v28i1.369
Kritzinger, E., Von Solms, S.H.: Cyber security for home users: a new way of protection through awareness enforcement. Comput. Secur. 29(8), 840–847 (2010)
Kritzinger, E., Bada, M., Nurse, J.R.C.: A study into the cybersecurity awareness initiatives for school learners in South Africa and the UK. In: Bishop, M., Futcher, L., Miloslavskaya, N., Theocharidou, M. (eds.) WISE 2017. IAICT, vol. 503, pp. 110–120. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58553-6_10
Kritzinger, E., Padayachee, K.: Engendering an e-safety awareness culture within the South African context. In: IEEE AFRICON Conference (2013). 10.1109/AFRCON.2013.6757708
De Lange, M., Von Solms, R.: An e-safety educational framework in South Africa. In: Proceedings of the Southern Africa Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference (SATNAC) (2012)
Livingstone, S., Kirwil, L., Ponte, C., Staksrud, E.: In their own words: what bothers children online? Eur. J. Commun. 29(3), 271–288 (2014)
Plowman, L., Stevenson, O., Stephen, C., McPake, J.: Preschool children’s learning with technology at home. Comput. Educ. 59(1), 30–37 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.11.014. Elsevier Ltd.
Rigby, K.: School perspectives on bullying and preventative strategies: an exploratory study. Aust. J. Educ. 61(1), 1–16 (2017)
Van Royen, K., Poels, K., Vandebosch, H., Adam, P.: Thinking before posting? Reducing cyber harassment on social networking sites through a reflective message. Comput. Hum. Behav. 66, 345–352 (2017)
Shanmugam, K.R., Srinivas, K., Sathyavelu Reddy, K.: Information and communication technology (ICT) in education: advantages, disadvantages, conveniences and limitations. In: Proceedings of NAAC Sponsored National Seminar (2014)
Smit, D.: Cyberbullying in South African and American schools: a legal comparative study. S. Afr. J. Educ. 35(2), 1–11 (2015)
Von Solms, S., Von Solms, R.: Towards cyber safety education in primary schools in Africa. In: Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Human Aspects of Information Security & Assurance, HAISA 2014, pp. 185–197 (2014)
Srivastava, J.S.: Cyber crime?: kids as soft targets. Int. J. Innovative Comput. Sci. Eng. 4(1), 31–36 (2017)
Stone, K.: Keeping children and young people safe online: balancing risk and opportunity key messages (2013). http://goo.gl/toJIXq
UNICEF: Your people’s navigation of online risks (2012). http://goo.gl/hqaXJ9. Accessed 10 Mar 2014
Wall, D.: Cybercrimes and the internet. In: Wall, D.S. (ed.) Crime and the Internet, pp. 1–17. Routledge, New York (2001)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Kritzinger, E. (2017). A Curriculum Approach to Improving Cyber Safety in South African Schools. In: Huang, TC., Lau, R., Huang, YM., Spaniol, M., Yuen, CH. (eds) Emerging Technologies for Education. SETE 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10676. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71084-6_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71084-6_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71083-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71084-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)