Hi all, a little off topic: At a reunion at my old school, some teachers approached me when they heard that I work in IT security, etc., and asked if I could give a talk or hold a discussion for the students from time to time. It is a secondary comprehensive school, so the target audience would be young people aged from 10-17. I would of course be happy to do this, if only because this school gave me so much myself. So here's my question to you: does anyone already have a (semi-)finished concept or presentation for something like this that they could give me to adapt? I already have a clear idea of the direction I want to take: web security, cookies, phishing, fraud , payment traps, social media issues (hate, freedom of expression and it´s borders, harassment, bullying, etc.). Perhaps someone already has a few lines for me in their drawer that they could share with me. PS: @Sosafe: maybe this could be something, you could offer as "add on" for educational purposes. With your psychological background you surely have the right "levers" to pull to get this in the youth´s minds. In my opinion security awareness must be instilled in people's minds as early as possible. In any case, thank you very much and I wish you all a happy New Year and good health in 2026! Kind regards, Markus
Hi Markus P., hope you had a great start to the new year! 🎉 Thanks so much for sharing this - really a great initiative! Security awareness really can’t start early enough, especially with the topics you mentioned. And it’s also great to see how proactive the teachers were. that already shows how much the need is being recognized. Last year, my dear colleague Christian Reinhardt actually kicked off a school project, coming from exactly this gap. He recently shared some great impressions on LinkedIn. This might be interesting for you to have a look at: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dr-christian-reinhardt_gestern-durfte-ich-etwas-erleben-das-mir-activity-7397540558040375298-j7v1 We’ll also be sharing more about this in the community soon, so stay tuned! 😊 Since this is about working with students of a young age, where do you see the biggest potential - and also possible hurdles? I’d also love to hear what others think — maybe Meltem C., Lars S., Kim H., you’ve had some experience with similar initiatives and could share your insights? 🧑🎓
I think the biggest hurdle is getting people on board and sparking their interest. Many people have the mantra ‘I have nothing to hide because I'm not doing anything wrong’ ... and this is where disillusionment must set in: no matter what you do on the web, you leave traces behind. Your purchases, your Google timeline, etc. With big data, you become ‘transparent’ and many corporations are more than interested in what you do... even if it's "just" to adjust your credit score or insurance rates... I think that if you can convey this to pupils (or at least ‘plant the seed’), you can achieve a great deal...
That's a great point Markus P.! Many probably don’t realize what actually happens with their data and as you said, how “transparent” we all are online.
“Planting the seed early is key!” 🌱
For sparking interest with pupils, what approaches have you considered so far e.g. storytelling? I’m curious how it could be done in a way that really sticks and students can apply it themselves. Since you mentioned “time to time”, were you thinking of small learning bites each session? How do you imagine the overall setup of your initiative? Would love to hear more about your approach and ideas! 😊 Thomas B. Janneke Matthias R. feel free to chime in and share your thoughts/ideas. 💡
Markus P. happy ne year! Great initiative! We've done projects with different schools now and learned some lessons. Would love to discuss and share. Would you be open to a chat this or next week?
Melissa G.: Since I would have to do this alongside my normal work, I cannot do it on a regularly basis. From time to time, I have days off during the week, but I work in the office on Saturdays and could use the compensatory days off for teaching.. So, in a sense, I am forced to teach as much as necessary within a certain amount of time, without overwhelming the children. And to be honest, most children these days can't listen for more than 30 minutes without getting distracted, can they?
