Protect Yourself Rules - New Training

[Eagle1993]

 

 

Edited June 5, 2019 by Eagle1993

[yknot]

We're doomed. 

[Setonfan]

You must have a different take.  I was at the BSA national meeting, and this is really good material for the age group.  The crowd of 2,000 plus Scouters received this very positively, and the "buzz" after the session was very positive. 

[Saltface]

Does this mean there is also a Protect Yourself Rules merit badge in the works?

1 hour ago, Setonfan said:

I was at the BSA national meeting, and this is really good material for the age group.  The crowd of 2,000 plus Scouters received this very positively, and the "buzz" after the session was very positive. 

You were at the BSA national meeting, everything said there gets a positive reception from the attendees.

My two cents is to make it required but please, please, please don't make it an adventure.

[The Latin Scot]

Too late. It's already being previewed as an adventure at all levels, meaning there will be a belt loop AND a Webelos pin:

https://www.scouting.org/programs/cub-scouts/preview-adventures/

[Eagle94-A1]

23 hours ago, yknot said:

We're doomed. 

I see your C3-P0 quote and raise you

 

 

[RememberSchiff]

Note the lesson plans, I have wondered if official training videos will become a  part of weekly meetings,  starting with Cubs and then later troop meetings.

Regarding lesson plans, less workbook and more simulated real-world exercises please.  Talk about news stories. For a den meeting,  we traveled to different locations and practiced what do if  a stranger grabs you. YELL "HELP YOU'RE NOT MY FATHER!".  "I''M NOT GOING WITH YOU" FIGHT. YELL. 

My $0.02,

Edited June 7, 2019 by RememberSchiff

[malraux]

Given that this replaces cyber Chip, it’s just better videos over bad videos. 

[MikeS72]

6 hours ago, malraux said:

Given that this replaces cyber Chip, it’s just better videos over bad videos. 

Not a complete replacement of Cyber Chip, but an alternative that can be done in place of Cyber Chip.  If it is used in place of Cyber Chip, it cannot count as one of the elective adventures for rank advancement.

[mrkstvns]

4 hours ago, MikeS72 said:

Not a complete replacement of Cyber Chip, but an alternative that can be done in place of Cyber Chip.  If it is used in place of Cyber Chip, it cannot count as one of the elective adventures for rank advancement.

From the perspective of an adult in a Boy Scout troop, I wonder what the impact of this will be on helping new scouts earn their Scout rank.

Currently, requirement 6 calls for the scout to earn Cyberchip. Some scouts have a valid Cyber Chip card that they earned in their Webelos den, and the ASMs accept that towards their Scout requirement.  If those scouts now have an option of doing the "Protect Yourself Rules" instead of a Cyber Chip, should we accept that as a Cyber Chip equivalent when the scout asks to be signed off on Scout rank?  Or should we tell them to do Cyber Chip (as we do for all the incoming scouts without current Cyber Chip cards)?

[malraux]

4 minutes ago, mrkstvns said:

From the perspective of an adult in a Boy Scout troop, I wonder what the impact of this will be on helping new scouts earn their Scout rank.

Currently, requirement 6 calls for the scout to earn Cyberchip. Some scouts have a valid Cyber Chip card that they earned in their Webelos den, and the ASMs accept that towards their Scout requirement.  If those scouts now have an option of doing the "Protect Yourself Rules" instead of a Cyber Chip, should we accept that as a Cyber Chip equivalent when the scout asks to be signed off on Scout rank?  Or should we tell them to do Cyber Chip (as we do for all the incoming scouts without current Cyber Chip cards)?

I would imagine some clarification on this when it gets rolled out formally. The cub cast discussing this made it really clear that the protect yourself adventure was going to happen fairly soon. The yo-yo one was a possible one.  So I’d imagine there will be more guidance when it happen. 

I could see either argument being right, that it does and doesn’t substitute at the troop level. 

[mrkstvns]

11 hours ago, malraux said:

Given that this replaces cyber Chip, it’s just better videos over bad videos. 

What's wrong with the NetSmartz videos?

I've led several Cyber Chip classes and have noticed that some of the NetSmartz videos resonate strongly with the boys and spark lively discussions. I like that there are videos on different topics for each age/grade group, letting the scouts view those of most interest to themselves. That also lets the adult facilitator "mix it up" a little bit by selecting different videos each time so that the course doesn't get too predictable.

The only complaint I have about the NetSmartz videos is that the collection seems a bit stale, with most of the videos being the same as they were several years ago, while the issues around cyber security and personal safety constantly evolve.  Privacy is an increasingly problematic area and the culture of tech constantly shifts (for example, my son shuns most of the sites you probably think are "popular social media sites" and he never reads email. If he's typical, then discussions about sharing things via email will ring hollow with him, and even if the videos are updated to talk about whatever messaging platform is most popular with his age group today, that video will be outdated tomorrow. Keeping up with the technology is a challenge...

[mrkstvns]

11 minutes ago, malraux said:

The yo-yo one was a possible one.   ...

The Yo-Yo adventure looked kind of cool.  Though I imagine it has its ups and downs.

[HashTagScouts]

1 hour ago, mrkstvns said:

What's wrong with the NetSmartz videos?

I've led several Cyber Chip classes and have noticed that some of the NetSmartz videos resonate strongly with the boys and spark lively discussions. I like that there are videos on different topics for each age/grade group, letting the scouts view those of most interest to themselves. That also lets the adult facilitator "mix it up" a little bit by selecting different videos each time so that the course doesn't get too predictable.

The only complaint I have about the NetSmartz videos is that the collection seems a bit stale, with most of the videos being the same as they were several years ago, while the issues around cyber security and personal safety constantly evolve.  Privacy is an increasingly problematic area and the culture of tech constantly shifts (for example, my son shuns most of the sites you probably think are "popular social media sites" and he never reads email. If he's typical, then discussions about sharing things via email will ring hollow with him, and even if the videos are updated to talk about whatever messaging platform is most popular with his age group today, that video will be outdated tomorrow. Keeping up with the technology is a challenge...

Valid points.  Youth are not apt to read emails, let alone respond to them.  Instagram and Snapchat are their frequent communication vehicle with "acquaintances", and text messaging with "friends".  If we aren't making any of our messaging relevant they are going to tune out.  as with anything, if it's rank advancement related, you may get them to pay attention to get the requirement signed-off.  Sinking in though, that is a whole different story.

A few years ago, I had a parent (this was outside of Scouting) tell another parent and I that they didn't need to worry, their son "isn't on social media or have their own email".  20 seconds later, I was able to show them on my phone their sons Snapchat profile, and explained they had to use an email address to setup the account, so they may want to have another conversation with their son.  

 

[MattR]

I watched the video. It would have fit in with the national meeting better had Sally really been George C Scott: "No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country...."

But more seriously, all the scams the cyber chip is trying to prevent is just a subset of something much bigger these days. We live in the information age and so we need to know how to deal with untrustworthy information. Whether it be youth protection issues or scams involving bit coins, stolen passwords, and pornography or your credit card, this is the dark side of society now. We used to call it street smarts because that's where unsavory characters would try to take advantage of people. Now it's anything we get information from.

While I think the BSA's methods could be tweaked and improved, I certainly respect their overall goal. There are a lot of people, and not just children, that are getting sucked into these things. This is where protecting children too much can backfire. Trustworthy is good and therefore they need to know how to deal with untrustworthy as well.