Gracie's Guide to Cyber Safety by Headline Books / Zoom Into Books

Gracie receives a tablet for her birthday and immediately downloads some pretty cool apps that keep her busy. She receives a message from a guy she doesn't know on a social media app and he tries to make contact with her. Gracie learns an important lesson on cyber safety and how easy it is for a strange adult to trick you into being friends. Gracie’s Guides are an award-series that help kids understand and how to cope with difficult situations. The series has been endorsed by SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) and is used by Police Departments in their summer programs for kids.

About the Author Award winning author, Angie Wilson, is a veteran elementary school reading teacher. She is the creator of two children's book series, Appalachian Heritage Books and Gracie's Mysteries Series. Her books have received a London Book Festival Award, Readers' Favorite Award, and three Mom's Choice Awards. She is very active in the Headline Kids School Show Program and visits classrooms throughout the year. She can often be found traveling with her husband, Derek, a church consultant minister. For more information visit www.AuthorAngieWilson.com

About the Illustrator Award-winning author and illustrator Ashley Teets is a 2012 summa cum laude graduate of Alderson-Broaddus College where she earned a B.F.A focusing on visual art with a minor in creative writing. After completing two semesters of graduate work at West Virginia University Ashley continued her graduate study through the Simmons College satellite graduate program at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts. She holds a Masters in Arts Administration through the University of Kentucky. Ashley is also a portrait artist, muralist and art instructor. For more information visit www.AshleyTeetsIllustration.com

ISBN 13: 9781946664594 $4.95 CAD 6.46

Headline Kids is an imprint of Headline Books 2018 Independent Publisher of the Year

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Gracie’s Guide to Cyber Safety

Angie Wilson

Illustrated by Ashley Teets Headline Kids an imprint of Headline Books, Inc Terra Alta, WV

Gracie’s Guide to Cyber Safety by Angie Wilson illustrated by Ashley Teets copyright ©2019 Angie Wilson All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any other form or for any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage system, without written permission from Headline Books. To order additional copies of this book, for book publishing information, or to contact the author: Headline Books, Inc. P.O. Box 52, Terra Alta, WV 26764 www.HeadlineBooks.com Tel: 304-789-3001 Email: mybook@headlinebooks.com Headline Kids is an imprint of Headline Books www.AuthorAngieWilson.com ISBN-13: 9781946664594

P R I N T E D I N T H E U N I T E D S TAT E S O F A M E R I C A

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Lieutenant Jeremy Halsey who works hard to keep our town safe and makes a difference in the lives of children by being a positive role model. Special thanks to Lieutenant Halsey and Corporal S. S. Keaton for helpful insight for this book.

The box sat on the kitchen table with a birthday card attached to the top with Gracie’s name written in big purple curlicue letters. It was a medium-sized box that was not heavy and was super quiet when shaken. Gracie’s mom had wrapped it and placed it on the table three days before her birthday. Needless to say, Gracie’s curiosity was about to get the best of her. She had picked it up and carefully examined it hundreds of times, but she was just as clueless to its contents on the third day as she had been on the first.

And so, when the clock struck midnight on her birthday, she jumped out of bed, ran down the hall, and burst into her mom’s bedroom. “Mom, wake up, wake up, wake up!” Gracie shouted. Her mom sat straight up in bed. To say she was startled was an understatement as she inquired, “Gracie, what is it, what’s wrong?” Gracie’s face beamed as she proclaimed, “It’s my birthday!” The shocked look on her mom’s face quickly turned into an angry look as she scolded the young girl, “Graceanne Faith, how many times have I told you to only wake me up when it’s an emergency?” “Uh, I’m sorry, Mom, but it’s officially my birthday. I’ve waited for three days to open my gift. Will you let me? Please, please, please!” Gracie asked in her sweetest possible voice. “No. Absolutely not. You turn right around and go back to your room,” Mom said as she fell back into her soft bed. Gracie, realizing it was hopeless, slowly turned and went back to her room where she laid awake for hours.

She finally fell asleep and didn’t hear Mom open the door at 5:45 a.m. and stand above her with three loud birthday blowers in hand. “Happy birthday, Gracie!” Mom yelled and blew the blowers as loudly as possible. This time it was Gracie who sat straight up in the bed, startled. But it didn’t take long for her to be fully awake and jump out of bed. She ran and grabbed the gift and tore into it like Christmas morning.

And boy, was she ever surprised. It was her very own tablet! She jumped up and down and squealed for ten minutes. This was without doubt the best birthday gift ever!

She spent the next two weeks glued to her screen, well—as much as her mom would allow.

She quickly realized there were apps for everything. Her mom had given permission to download several of them and it was enough to keep her busy. She had an app for homework assignments, drawing, coloring, and a variety of games. She also created two virtual pets, three virtual instruments, and stayed busy with a babysitting app. When she was not occupied with those things, she had her own virtual nail salon, hair studio, and she cooked up the yummiest-looking concoctions in her kid’s cafe.

Gracie’s friends were chatting on social media together, so she thought it would be cool to join. She was glad her mom agreed because every night there were multiple conversations going on. Most of them were a bunch of blabbing about nothing and Gracie loved to blab, so it was perfect.

Before long, Gracie began to lose sleep because of her virtual pets. She would hear a notification from the app that she needed to feed one of her kittens at 3:00 a.m. in the morning. Really? Gracie was the kind of kid who loved her sleep. This interruption had to stop. The only way to put an end to it was to delete Chip and Dip, her two Siamese kittens. She kinda felt bad about it, but her mom said, “Gracie, they are not real; you cannot hold them or pet them. It is okay to delete the app.” She thought about Brayden, a guy in her class at school, who often sleeps through most of the morning because he is awake half the night ‘saving the world’ on some crazy game. His grades suffer because of his addiction to games. He was also in a bad mood a lot. She didn’t know if it was his lack of sleep or playing war games that made him that way, but Gracie did not want her grades to suffer. She thought about what her mom said and it made sense, so she quickly deleted them before she changed her mind. She felt much better after a perfect night’s sleep

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As the newness of the tablet wore off, she slowly began to delete some of the apps that did nothing more than occupy her time. She still enjoyed playing on it every day and chatting with her friends. She especially liked the app that let her send videos to her friends. It was the coolest thing ever.

Cyber Crossword

Across 2. Who did Gracie’s mom tell about the stranger online? 5. The kind of letters Gracie’s name was written in on her birthday card. 7. What kind of virtual pets did Gracie have? 9. How did Gracie’s mom feel when she awakened her? Down 1. What was Gracie’s gift? (two words) 3. What was one item Officer Jeremy gave Gracie after the interview? 4. What was the noise that awakened Gracie? 5. What did Gracie like to do with her friends on her tablet? 6. What did Gracie and her friends like to post online? 8. Two words that describe what Gracie considers herself to be. 21

It became an after-school ritual to get a snack, do her homework, and then spend some time taking selfies. She got to be a pro at changing up her picture by adding silly features to her face, and most her friends were doing the same thing. They tried to see who could add the most craziness to their picture. They posted their selfies to see how many comments they could get. This went on for months. One day she received a message from a guy named Martin who just said, “Hey, what’s up?” Gracie didn’t know him, but thought it was okay to just chit-chat with him. He began to chat with her every night for the next several weeks about her silly selfies. He was always cracking jokes and making her laugh. She felt like he was becoming her friend. One night she was awakened by a loud ding which told her she had a new message. It was from Martin. He told her that she looked pretty and he would like to meet up with her sometime. Gracie quickly said, ‘No’, because she was too sleepy to think about it. She put the tablet down and was asleep within a few minutes.

The next night, she was once again awakened by a ding. She sat up and thought, what in the world? She picked up the tablet and saw it was another message from Martin. He asked her again about meeting him. This time, he told her they could go to the diner in town. Gracie thought about it for a while but was too sleepy to give it a lot of thought, so she ignored it and went back to sleep. The next night, Martin asked her again. She said her mom probably wouldn’t let her because she did not know him. He told her it was okay to meet with him, because he was her friend and she could trust him. He said that sometimes parents act weird about other adults being friends with their kids, but it really wasn’t a big deal-it happens all the time. He just wanted to see her. He told her this time he would buy her cheese fries, soda, and a doubledecker chocolate chip ice cream cone. Gracie thought about it for a minute. It was so tempting to say yes because those are her favorite yummy things, but she felt something wasn’t right. Gracie is not only a smart kid, but she’s also a super spy. She loves nothing more than investigating the world around her, and as an investigator, she was sure something was not right with this guy. Maybe because he called her pretty and that felt a little weird, or possibly because he knew about her favorite things to eat, and he would’ve had to have stalked her closely to know that because they had never talked about it. There was just something inside that was telling her that kids do not meet up with strangers. 23

She jumped up out of bed and ran out the door. She charged down the hall and once again burst into her mom’s bedroom.

“Mom, Mom,” she yelled, “wake up!” Her mom sat straight up in bed with a ‘This had better be an emergency’ look on her face. Gracie did not give her time to say a word, but quickly explained all about Martin. Mom jumped out of bed and ran and grabbed the tablet and read every single message. She hugged Gracie and told her she was very proud of her for doing the right thing by telling her about Martin. She said she was going to keep the tablet and talk to the authorities. She thanked her for waking her up, because this was most definitely an emergency.

Gracie’s mom talked to Officer Jeremy, a policeman at their local station, and he asked her to bring Gracie down to the station, so they could interview her. Gracie wasn’t sure what would happen, but her mom said they would just ask her a few questions. Officer Jeremy was super nice and when he was finished with the questions, he gave Gracie a brand-new notebook and a pack of gel pens. She couldn’t wait to use those pens to write down clues on her next case. 26

Write a nice conversation with your friend!

A few weeks later, Officer Jeremy called and informed them that the bad guy had been caught. They had set up to trap to trick Martin and it worked. They pretended to be Gracie on the app and started chatting with him. They agreed to meet him at the diner, and sure enough, he showed up. Boy, was Martin surprised when “Gracie” was really Officer Jeremy. They were glad to know that he wouldn’t be doing that kind of thing any more. Gracie’s mom hugged her once again and was so happy this story had a good ending for her daughter. She told her the rule, ‘never talk to strangers’ also applies to people you can’t see, like those who are online. There are also times that people you know will make rude or hurtful comments. It is important to talk to adults about this type of behavior and to never participate in anything that would hurt someone else. Gracie thought about how it felt when someone insulted her and she knew it wasn’t a good feeling. She did not want to make anyone else feel that way. “Gossip, rumors, lies, and threats are serious issues. I want you to tell me or another caring adult if this happens to you or anyone else you know,” Mom said. Gracie thought about it for a moment and then ran and grabbed her notebook and gel pens. She wrote a message to display in her bedroom that will help her remember to be aware of the dangers of the internet.

BE ON GUARD WHEN YOU’RE ONLINE!

BE SAFE WHEN YOU’RE ONLINE The Internet can be wonderful for kids. They can use it to research school reports, communicate with teachers and other kids, and play interactive games. But online access also comes with risks, like inappropriate content, cyberbullying, and online predators. Using apps and websites where kids interact, predators may pose as a child or teen looking to make a new friend. They might prod the child to exchange personal information, such as address and phone number, or encourage kids to call them, seeing their phone number via caller ID. Parents should be aware of what their kids see and hear on the Internet, who they meet, and what they share about themselves. Talk with your kids, use tools to protect them, and keep an eye on their activities. Getting Involved in Kids’ Online Activities More important than blocking objectionable material is teaching your kids safe and responsible online behavior, and keeping an eye on their Internet use. Basic guidelines to share with your kids for safe online use: · · · · · · ·

Follow the family rules, and those set by the Internet service provider. Never post or trade personal pictures. Never reveal personal information, such as address, phone number, or school name or location. Use only a screen name and don’t share passwords (other than with parents). Never agree to get together in person with anyone met online without parent approval and/or supervision. Never respond to a threatening email, message, post, or text. Always tell a parent or other trusted adult about any communication or conversation that was scary or hurtful.

Basic guidelines for parental supervision: · · · · · 30

Spend time online together to teach your kids appropriate online behavior. Keep the computer in a common area where you can watch and monitor its use, not in individual bedrooms. Monitor any time spent on smartphones or tablets. Bookmark kids’ favorite sites for easy access. Check your credit card and phone bills for unfamiliar account charges. Find out what, if any, online protection is offered by your child’s school, after-school center, friends’ homes, or any place where kids could use a computer without your supervision.

Take your child seriously if he or she reports an uncomfortable online exchange.

Call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at (800) 843-5678 if you’re aware of the sending, use, or viewing of child pornography online. Contact your local law enforcement agency or the FBI if your child has received child pornography via the Internet. Watch for warning signs of a child being targeted by an online predator. These can include: · · · · ·

spending long hours online, especially at night phone calls from people you don’t know unsolicited gifts arriving in the mail your child suddenly turning off the computer when you walk into the room withdrawal from family life and reluctance to discuss online activities

Talk to your kids! Keep an open line of communication and make sure that they feel comfortable turning to you when they have problems online. © 1995- . The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth®. Reprinted with permission.

Online Safety Rules: 1. Online predators sound nice, but they are not nice. 2. Never agree to meet someone you met online. 3. Never give out personal information such as your first/ last name and where you live. 4. Never accept gifts from strangers. 5. Always talk to your parents or a caring adult if you feel uncomfortable about any situation.

Check out ALL of Gracie’s Guide Books!