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FBI Safe Online
Surfing Internet Challenge
Cyber Safety for Young Americans
06/12/15
In April, the Pew Research Center published a study saying that 92
percent of teens report going online daily—including 24 percent who say
they go online “almost constantly.” According to the study, nearly
three-fourths of teens have or use a smartphone.
Considering the many dangers that lurk on the Internet—from child
predators to cyber bullies, from malicious software to a multitude of
scams—it’s imperative that our young people learn the ins and outs of
online safety from an early age.
That is precisely why the Bureau launched the FBI Safe Online Surfing
(SOS) Internet Challenge in October 2012 with a dedicated new website.
FBI-SOS is a free, fun, and informative program that promotes cyber
citizenship by educating students in third to eighth grades on the
essentials of online security. For teachers, the site provides a
ready-made curriculum that meets state and federal Internet safety
mandates, complete with online testing and a national competition to
encourage learning and participation. A secure online system enables
teachers to register their schools, manage their classes, automatically
grade their students’ exams, and request the test scores.
FBI-SOS just finished its third school year, with record results. A
total of 275,656 students completed the exams—more than triple the
previous year. The competition included 5,053 schools in 49 states,
D.C., Puerto Rico, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
The popularity of our SOS online cyber program has grown over the past
several school years. The number of students who have completed the
training went from 24,475 in 2012-2013, to 75,377 in 2013-2014, to
275,656 in 2014-2015. That’s a grand total of 375,508 students.
“We couldn’t be more pleased with how teachers and students are
responding to the program and how participation is growing in such
leaps and bounds,” said Scott McMillion of the FBI Criminal
Investigative Division’s Violent Crimes Against Children Section, which
runs the program in concert with our Office of Public Affairs and field
offices nationwide. “FBI-SOS is helping to turn our nation’s young
people into a more cyber savvy generation and to protect them from
online crime now and in the future.”
The FBI-SOS website features six islands—one for each grade level—with
age appropriate games, videos, and other interactive materials in
various portals. The site covers such topics as cell phone safety, the
protection of personal information, password strength, instant
messaging, social networking, and online gaming safety. The videos
include real-life stories of kids who have faced cyber bullies and
online predators.
After navigating through the appropriate island, students take a timed
quiz. The test scores for each school are aggregated by the FBI and
appear on a national leaderboard on the website each month from
September through May. Schools compete in one of three categories,
determined by the number of students participating: Starfish (5-50
participants); Stingray (51-100); and Shark (100+). The top-scoring
school in each category at the end of the month receives a national
FBI-SOS award. When possible, the winning schools are visited by
representatives of their local FBI field office.
Anyone—young or old, in the U.S. or worldwide—can complete the
activities on the FBI-SOS website. The testing and competition,
however, are only open to students in grades 3-8 at public, private, or
home schools in the U.S. or its territories.
We’d like to congratulate the 26 schools that won the competition this
past year and thank the many teachers and students who participated. We
hope you will join us again in September.
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