Evaluation of Internet Child Safety Materials Used by ICAC Task Forces in School and Community Settings, Final Report.

摘要

Research Goals and Objectives: This project involves content and process evaluations of current internet safety education (ISE) program materials and their use by law enforcement presenters and schools. Despite a proliferation of internet safety programs over the last decade, there is little information that can guide law enforcement, policy makers or the public in determining which materials or delivery methods are most likely to increase childrens online safety. The design of the proposed content and process evaluation is based on the perspective that, despite widespread dissemination, internet safety education is still in a formative stage. It is not clear that ISE messages have been formulated around a careful analysis of the risk and the ways that youth experience problems online, or that they have applied research-based prevention strategies. While outcome evaluation will be critical to determining the effectiveness of internet safety programs in the future, it is important to identify problems in ISE delivery and create guidelines for developing more promising programs. Research Design and Methodology: The study was divided into four subprojects. First, a systematic review or meta-synthesis was conducted to identify effective elements of prevention identified by the research across different youth problem areas such as drug abuse, sex education, smoking prevention, suicide, youth violence, and school failure. The process resulted in the development of a KEEP (Known Elements of Effective Prevention) Checklist. Second, a content analysis was conducted on four of the most well-developed and long-standing youth internet safety curricula: i-SAFE, iKeepSafe, Netsmartz, and Web Wise Kids. Third, we conducted a process evaluation to better understand how internet safety education programs are being implemented. The process evaluation was conducted via national surveys with three different groups of respondents: Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force commanders (N=43), ICAC Task Force presenters (N=91), and a sample of school professionals (N=139). Finally, we developed an internet safety education outcome survey focused on online harassment and digital citizenship. The intention for creating and piloting this survey was to provide the field with a research-based tool that can be used in future evaluation and program monitoring efforts. This tool, along with other research and evaluation information on internet safety will be placed in an Internet Safety Education Resource Center on the ICAC Task Force website.Research Results and