WHERE’S THE LINE?

ONLINE SAFETY LESSON PLAN

(Grades 6-8)

CENTRE FOR YOUTH CRIME PREVENTION - It Starts with YOUth!

www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cycp-cpcj
 WHERE’S THE LINE? Online Safety Lesson Plan

OBJECTIVES:
• To further online safety education.
• To promote safe and informed online behaviour through:
• Encouraging youth to make safe, ethical and knowledge-based decisions online;
• Helping youth to identify strategies and supports that are available to assist them with
issues they may encounter online.

MATERIALS:
Reference documents are found at the end of this lesson plan.
Handouts:
Activity #1: The Stats are Right (make 5 copies)
Activity #2: Where’s the Line? (make enough copies for all participants).
Read the Presenter’s Version to prepare you to lead the discussion about this handout.
Activity #3: Getting Help (make enough copies for all participants)
Activity #4: Know Your Rights (make enough copies for all participants).
If a follow-up will be performed on this activity, copy both Part A and B. If not, copy only Part A.

Other Materials:
White board (regular or digital) for summarizing activities
Chart paper and markers for groups to use

TIME:
Introduction: 5 minutes
Activity #1: The Stats are Right 5 minutes
Activity #2: Where’s the Line? 25 minutes
Activity #3: Getting Help 15 minutes
Activity #4: Know Your Rights 10 minutes
Total: 60 minutes

PRESENTER PREPARATION:
Print the lesson plan and reference documents.
Print required handouts. Make a few extra copies just to be safe.
Gather all of the necessary materials identified above.
If possible, arrange a follow up the next day and print copies of the Know Your Rights handout.
(Interventions that include follow-up in class have been found to be more effective in changing
student behaviour.)
If possible, arrange for peer leaders to assist in your presentation. It is recommended that you include
peer leaders in your presentation because students often are reluctant to discuss youth culture in
teacher-led discussions. If you do have peer leaders to assist you, meet with them ahead of time to
explain the role they will play in the presentation. This lesson plan includes notes explaining how peer
leaders could assist.

RCMP Centre for Youth Crime Prevention 2

 WHERE’S THE LINE? Online Safety Lesson Plan

LESSON

INTRODUCTION
• Introduce yourself.
• If peer leaders are assisting you, introduce them.
• Tell students about what you will be talking about and why. Explain that while most of the
problems people deal with online do not rise to the level of being criminal, the law is there
to be enforced when someone crosses that line.
• Explain that while you are going to be talking about serious issues, it is important to keep
in mind that most Canadian children and youth generally stay out of trouble online.
• Explain that if any of the issues discussed relate closely to personal experience and make
anyone feel uncomfortable, they are welcome to leave and speak with a counsellor, Elder,
or someone else who may be available in your setting.

ACTIVITY #1: THE STATS ARE RIGHT

Goal: To perform social norming by showing that high-risk activities are less common than students
may think.
Type: Quiz activity
Time: 10 minutes
Step #1: (5 minutes)
Call five volunteers up from the audience to participate in an activity. Explain to them that you will be asking
each one a question about how common some risky online activities are. Responses will be in the form of one
out of every “x” number of students.
Ask each student one of the following questions:
• How many Grade 8 students have done anything mean or cruel to anyone else online?
• How many Grade 8 students have ever talked to someone online that they did not know in
person?
• How many Grade 8 students have harassed someone in an online game?
• How many Grade 8 students have sent someone a “sext” (a nude or partly nude
photograph)?
• How many Grade 8 students have shared a sext that someone sent them with anyone else?
After each question, turn to the rest of the students and ask them as a group to say whether they feel the
student’s guess is about right, too high, or too low.

Peer leadership role: If peer leaders are assisting you, have them act or select a student from the audience
to act as a “game show host” to make the activity more entertaining.

RCMP Centre for Youth Crime Prevention 3

 WHERE’S THE LINE? Online Safety Lesson Plan

Step #2: (5 minutes)

Pass out The Stats are Right handouts to the students at the front and have them read the correct statistic for
each activity aloud:
• Being mean or cruel online: one in seven
• Talking to someone online that they did not know in person: one in three
• Harassing someone in an online game: one in 20
• Sending a sext: one in 20
• Sharing a sext that someone sent you: one in a hundred
Most of the correct statistics will probably be lower than the students’ guesses. Tell students that it is easy
to get the impression that risky activities are more common than they really are. This can also make these
activities seem less risky. If we think that things like bullying and sexting are common, and we do not know
many people who have had serious problems because of them, it is easy to underestimate how risky they
really are.

RCMP Centre for Youth Crime Prevention 4

 WHERE’S THE LINE? Online Safety Lesson Plan

ACTIVITY #2: WHERE’S THE LINE?

Goal: To help students understand factors that make an online activity safe, risky or illegal.
Type: Group activity
Time: 25 minutes
Step #1: (5 minutes)
Explain to students that because we do not always have a clear idea of how common and risky online activities
are, it can sometimes be hard to identify which are safe, which are dangerous (or even illegal) and which are
“on the line.”
• Divide the audience into five groups.
• Give each of the students a Where’s the Line handout.
• Explain to the audience that the handout has five scenarios on it and that they will need
to decide if each of the scenarios is on the line or over the line according to the definitions
below:
• ON THE LINE: There may be some risk to one or more people involved in the scenario,
but it is not clearly dangerous or illegal. For any scenarios that fall under this category
students should also think of two or three things that might take it “over the line” if
they were different.
• OVER THE LINE: Clearly dangerous to one or more people in the scenario and
possibly illegal.
Step #2: (10 minutes)
Have students discuss the scenarios in their groups as instructed above. Make sure that each group picks one
spokesperson to share their findings with the whole audience.
Step #3: (10 minutes)
Call the spokespeople of each group up to the front and have them share their conclusions about each of the
scenarios, including the factors they feel would push those that are “on the line” to “over the line.”
Use the Where’s the Line? Presenter’s Version to help you lead the discussion.

Peer leadership role: If peer leaders are assisting you, have them work with the student groups to keep
them on task and to prompt them to think about legal and ethical issues.

RCMP Centre for Youth Crime Prevention 5

 WHERE’S THE LINE? Online Safety Lesson Plan

ACTIVITY #3: GETTING HELP

Goal: To help students understand where they can turn for help when they are involved in a risky
online activity
Type: Full-group activity
Time: 10 minutes
Step #1: (5 minutes)
• Send the spokespeople from the previous activity back to their groups, each with a fifth of
the Getting Help handouts.
• Ask each group to pick one of the scenarios they identified as being “over the line” in the
last activity and to write what the issue is at the top of the handout.
• Individually, have group members write in the left side of the T-chart where the people
involved in the scenario could go to get help.
• Ask group members what the people might do if they didn’t want to talk to someone they
know, didn’t want to talk to someone in person, or if one of the first sources of help was
unable to help them. Have them write their answers on the right side of the T-chart.
• Have group members come together to share their ideas and have the spokesperson from
each group create a group chart of everybody’s sources.
Step #2: (5 minutes)
Using a whiteboard or chart paper, create a master T-chart of sources of help with input from the student
spokespeople. Encourage students to include anyone who can help, including people they see often and
people they may never have had contact with before (e.g. a police officer or a doctor.)
Have students fill in any sources of help missing from their own T-charts and encourage them to show the
T-charts to their parents when they get home, to see if their parents can suggest any other sources of help
they did not think of.

Peer leadership role: If peer leaders are assisting you, have them work with the student groups to keep
them on task and to prompt them to think about possible sources of help.

RCMP Centre for Youth Crime Prevention 6

 WHERE’S THE LINE? Online Safety Lesson Plan

ACTIVITY #4: KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

Goal: To ensure that students know their legal rights when it comes to online activities
Type: Full-group/written activity
Time: 10 minutes
Step #1: (5 minutes)
Explain to students that while they have a wide range of sources to help them deal with online issues, it’s also
important to know that they have legal rights as well. Briefly explain to them how the following sections of the
Criminal Code apply to online issues:
• Harassment: When someone “causes [an]other person reasonably, in all the
circumstances, to fear for their safety or the safety of anyone known to them.” This includes
“repeatedly communicating with, either directly or indirectly, the other person or anyone
known to them” and “engaging in threatening conduct directed at the other person or any
member of their family.” (Criminal Code, section 264)
• Identity fraud: When someone “fraudulently personates another person, living or dead,
with intent to gain advantage for themselves or another person; with intent to obtain any
property or an interest in any property; with intent to cause disadvantage to the person
being personated or another person.” (Criminal Code, section 403)
• Publishing intimate images: When someone “knowingly distributes, transmits, sells,
makes available or advertises an intimate image of a person knowing that the person
depicted in the image did not give their consent to that conduct, or being reckless as to
whether or not that person gave their consent.” (Criminal Code, section 162.1) Police
typically focus on individuals who are instrumental in creating or distributing these
images (being the originator of the distribution, or actively encouraging its wider spread)
rather than pursuing teens who are merely among those who receive it or send a picture
of themselves to someone else. It is very unlikely that you will be charged unless you share
an intimate image of someone else without their permission.
• Extortion: When someone “by threats, accusations, menaces or violence induces or
attempts to induce any person … to do anything or cause anything to be done.” (Criminal
Code, section 346)
• Luring: When someone “by a means of telecommunication, communicates with a person
who is, or who the accused believes is under 18 to commit sexual acts.” (Criminal Code,
section 172.1)
• Unauthorized use of computer: When someone “fraudulently and without colour of
right, obtains, directly or indirectly, any computer service.” (Criminal Code, section 342.1)
(“Colour of right” is a legal term that means “an honest belief that what you’re doing is
justified under the law.”)
As well, tell students that they have access to civil remedies including suing for defamation if someone
publishes something about them (in any public space, including social media or an online video) that is false
and could harm their reputation. (Make sure to point out that if they choose this route they and their families
would need to consult with a lawyer, not the police.)
Make sure to explain that this is not a complete list, just a selection most relevant to young people’s online
experiences.

RCMP Centre for Youth Crime Prevention 7

 WHERE’S THE LINE? Online Safety Lesson Plan

Step #2: (5 minutes)

Tell students to pick up a copy of the Know Your Rights handout on their way out of the session.
Optional: If their facilitator will be following up on the activity later, tell students to complete the questions
and be ready to discuss them at the next class.

Notes:

RCMP Centre for Youth Crime Prevention 8

WHERE’S THE LINE? Online Safety
ACTIVITY 1: THE STATS ARE RIGHT
THE STATS ARE RIGHT
Presenter: Keep this folded until students have guessed how common they think the activities below are. Then hand it
to them to unfold and read the correct statistics. Remember, responses are in the form of one out of every “x” number
of students.
How many Grade 8 students have done anything mean or cruel to anyone else online in the past four week?
99 One in seven

How many Grade 8 students have ever talked to anyone online that they did not know in person?
99 One in three

How many Grade 8 students have harassed someone in an online game?

99 One in twenty

How many Grade 8 students have sent someone a “sext” (a nude or partly nude photograph)?
99 One in twenty

How many Grade 8 students have shared a sext someone sent them with anyone else?
99 One in a hundred
WHERE’S THE LINE? Online Safety
ACTIVITY 2: WHERE’S THE LINE?
Read the scenarios below and decide if each one is ON THE LINE or OVER THE LINE:
ON THE LINE means that someone in the scenario is doing something wrong, but it’s not likely that anyone will be
really hurt. When you witness something like this, you should intervene in ways that are safe, like letting people know
that you care about them.
OVER THE LINE means that someone in the scenario is doing something that is likely to hurt someone in a serious
way. A scenario where someone is breaking the law is automatically over the line. When you witness something like
this, you may have to help get someone out of harm’s way and record evidence to show what happened to your
parents, school authorities or the police.

SCENARIO ONE: SASHA AND MAX

Sasha likes to upload videos of herself playing soccer and Max often leaves mean comments on the videos. Sasha
finds a computer in the school lab where Max has left his social media account logged in, which means she can post
or delete anything she wants on his account. She pretends to be him and posts nasty comments on all of his friends’
photos and then changes his password so he cannot take them down.

SCENARIO TWO: JENNIFER AND MARIA

Jennifer is looking at the pictures she took on her phone and deciding which ones to post. She finds one she took at a
party that she thinks looks really good. The problem is that her friend Maria is also in it and her hair is standing up in a
way that makes her look silly. When she posts the picture, some of their friends tag it with Maria’s name. The next day
Maria finds out she has been tagged in the photo and people have left comments making fun of her hair. She does not
even remember when the picture was taken, and she wishes that Jennifer had asked her before posting it.

SCENARIO THREE: SCOTT AND COLIN

After Scott’s ex-girlfriend Linda started going out with Colin, Scott started a Tumblr called “Why I Hate Colin” and
invited everyone he knew to follow it. It turned out that there were quite a few people at the school who did not like
Colin and his friends, and Scott’s group grew quickly. Whenever the message traffic on the group slowed, Scott would
try to boost it by posting some shocking accusation about Colin, such as suggesting that he had cheated on Linda.

SCENARIO FOUR: KEVIN AND NASREEN

Kevin sends his friend Nasreen a very revealing picture of his girlfriend Julie and asks her to send it to as many people
as she can. He tells her that he just found out that Julie had been flirting with other guys by sending them sexy
pictures and he wants to get back at her by sharing the photos she sent him.

SCENARIO FIVE: SAM AND LAURA

Sam is playing an online game for the first time. Laura sees Sam’s character appear in the game and attacks him, but
because Sam is still learning the game, he cannot defend himself and his character dies. His character reappears in
the same place a few seconds later and Laura kills his character again. When his character reappears again, he says to
Laura (over the game’s chat channel) “Stop shooting at me, I’m still learning the game.”
WHERE’S THE LINE? Online Safety
ACTIVITY 3: GETTING HELP
Name:
GETTING HELP
Pick one of the scenarios you identified as being “OVER THE LINE” in the last activity and write the issue in the space
below.
In the left side of the chart below, write some ways the people involved in the scenario could go to get help from
people they know.
In the right side of the chart, write down options that the people in the scenario might do if they didn’t want to talk to
someone they knew, or did not want to talk to someone in person, or if one of the first sources of help was unable to
help them.

Issue:
Where could they go for help? Alternate sources of help:
WHERE’S THE LINE? Online Safety
ACTIVITY 4: KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!
Everyone has rights--online and offline. Remember, nothing you can do makes it okay for people to be mean to you or
share pictures of you without your permission.
You always have a right to…
99 Be treated with respect. If someone hurts, insults or scares you, tries to control what you do,
pressures you to do things you do not want to do or tries to keep you away from friends and family,
you do not have to put up with it. If someone is doing this, they could be charged with criminal
harassment.
99 Say yes or no. You have the right to give or not give consent for what’s done to you, whether that’s
sharing photos of you, accessing your online accounts or reading or posting things that you made.
You have a right to say no to your friends, too: a lot of boys say they feel pressured by their friends to
do things that are abusive, like sharing sexual photos of their girlfriends. It can be hard to stand up
to this pressure, but you have to think about how much giving in could hurt you and your partner. If
someone shares a sexual photo of you without your permission they could be charged with publishing
an intimate image, and a judge can order that the photos be taken off the Internet. If someone says
that they will spread embarrassing stuff around if you don’t do what they say, they can be charged
with extortion.
99 Be a kid. No matter how grown-up you think you are, it is not good for young people to have a sexual
relationship with adults. If someone over the age of 18 contacts you online and tries to get you to be
their boyfriend or girlfriend, they can be charged with luring a child – even if they tell you the truth
about who they are or how old they are.
99 Protect your online activity. If someone hacks into your email or social networking account, they can
be charged with unauthorized use of a computer. If someone is pretending to be you online, they can
be charged with identity fraud.
99 Get help. Talk to friends, parents, teachers, or other adults you trust. If someone has threatened
violence, either online or offline, you should contact the police. If there is nobody you can or want to
talk to in person, you can call a helpline like Kids Help Phone (1-800-668-6868) or visit their website
(http://www.kidshelpphone.ca/).
IF SOMEBODY IS BEING MEAN TO YOU ONLINE:
• Do not fight back. A lot of times bullies are looking to get a rise out of you, and fighting back just
gives them what they want.
• Save the evidence. If it’s something that was sent directly to you, make sure to save it. If it is
something that can be deleted (a tweet, a status update, etc.), get a screenshot
(see http://www.take-a-screenshot.org/).
• Contact your local police if ever you fear for your safety or the safety of others.

IF SOMEBODY POSTS A PHOTO OF YOU WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION:

• Start by asking the person who shared it to take it down or stop sharing it. Kids report that this
works more often than not!
• Ask the service or platform where it was shared to take it down. If you are under 18, they may
be required by law to take it down, and most have a policy of taking down any photos that were
shared without the subject’s permission.
• Do a reverse image search with a service like TinEye (www.tineye.com) or Google (https://support.
google.com/websearch/answer/1325808?hl=en) to see if the photo has been posted anywhere
else. If it has, repeat step 2.
• If you are partly or fully naked in the picture, you may want to talk to a lawyer, report it to CyberTip
(https://www.cybertip.ca/app/en/report), or contact the police. The police have the power to force
someone to take down and stop spreading the image.

HELP A FRIEND
If you think a friend is getting involved in an unhealthy relationship – as a victim, an abuser, or both – talk to them
about it. If that does not help, you can talk to their parents, a teacher or another adult you trust. Do not be part of the
abuse by forwarding or sharing any embarrassing or sexual material that is being spread around.
Here are some ways you can help:
• Comfort the person being targeted privately: One of the worst things about being bullied is feeling
that nobody cares about what’s happening. Letting someone know you care can be a big help and
will not make things worse.
• Help the target report what’s happening or talk about it to their parents or friends. Children and youth
say that helping them talk to parents or friends, or reporting it to the service provider is one of the
best things witnesses can do.
• Post something nice about the target. If you want to do something public, stay positive: let people
know that you’re not on the bully’s side by posting something good about the target. You can also
say things like “We don’t say mean things to people here” or “Bullying isn’t what this place is about”
to make sure everyone knows this behaviour isn’t tolerated in your online community.
• Talk to the person doing the bullying privately. If you want to talk to them, do it by using something
like a private message, text or IM so they do not feel embarrassed. If they say they are only joking,
remind them that what is a joke to one person can really hurt someone else. If they say they are
getting back for something done to them or to a friend, tell them that escalating the drama will
only make things worse.
• If something is happening right now that you have to stop, try distracting the person who is doing
the bullying or giving the target a chance to get out of the situation without being embarrassed.
IMAGINE A FRIEND ASKING YOU TO HELP WITH THE FOLLOWING PROBLEM:
I’ve been going out with this guy I met at a school dance for about three months. He lives on the other side of town so we
mostly talk online instead of getting together in person. A couple of weeks ago he started asking me to send him some
revealing pictures. I really liked him so I took a picture with my phone and sent it to him. Now he’s saying that if I don’t send
him more he’ll send that first one to my parents, and if he does I know they’ll totally freak out!

What advice would you give?

Who else would you suggest they seek help from?

How else could you help?

Be prepared to discuss your answers next class.