Girl Scouts of the USA publishes Safety-Wise, a manual which gives information about a variety of safety topics. Please refer to the Safety-Wise publication for guidelines and further information.

Girl Scouts of West Central Florida troops can obtain a free copy of Safety-Wise from the Girl Scout Store with a voucher from your Service Unit Manager.

Internet Safety

In an article in Girl Scout Leader magazine, Adrienne J. Kovar included some precautions that can be taken to help ensure the safety of children using the internet. The article, titled ”Traffic Rules on the Information Superhighway”, includes the following guidelines:

• Become familiar with the way your service provider’s features are organized. How easy is the service to navigate? Are the children’s features, if any, kept in a separate area?

• Teach the girls the rules of online safety: don’t give out personal information, including your online password; report any contact that feels uncomfortable; and don’t go into private chat areas or arrange to meet anyone in person.

• Learn how to implement controls appropriate to the girls’ age levels. If your service provider does not have parental controls, a number of software packages are available that can block access to inappropriate sites.

• Check regularly with you ISP server to see if its features or terms of service have changed. Service providers sometimes make such changes even if their software is not being updated.

Girl Scouts of the USA’s Safety-Wise has been updated to include information about Internet safety. A safety pledge is included to encourage proper use of the technology. This pledge can be downloaded from this website or the GSUSA website.