A new, free online course will be released for students grades three to eight to help them learn about online safety, bullying, and Internet ethics.

The program, “Think Before You Link” is “aimed at giving children, teachers, and families the tools to help young digital users safely navigate the Internet,” said an article on WashingtonPost.com.

Think Before You Link “was produced by Discovery Education and Intel Security and is being offered free to schools around the country,” the article said.

“This was a long-identified need,” said Lori McFarling of Discovery Education. “We’ve heard from our district partners that what they really needed was help to introduce the concept of online safety to our youngest students.”

The program, the article said, “is divided into three parts, each of which should take a student about 45 minutes to work through.”

“In addition, there are supplementary materials that educators can use to extend lessons, and separate but related programming for parents,” McFarling said. “The curriculum addresses questions of privacy, contact with strangers, malware, passwords, gaming and plagiarism, among others. It was created in consultation with the National Cyber Security Alliance.”

These are tools, she said in the article, “are meant to be used in school and out of school.”

“It’s aimed at helping kids to become confident, safe, digital citizens,” she said. “We really wanted to target and make sure we spoke to the youngest of learners because we know how early young people are getting online.”

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Article by Kassondra Granata, Education World Contributor