Teachers say cybersafety instruction lags

WASHINGTON, May 4 (UPI) -- Most U.S. teachers say they have received little or no training on teaching cybersafety, a survey indicated Wednesday.

In the poll released by the National Cyber Security Alliance, 81 percent of school administrators said they believed they were providing adequate instruction about online safety, but 36 percent of teachers said they received zero hours of training and 40 percent only one to three hours.

Most teachers (79 percent) said parents bore the main responsibility for teaching their children about cybersecurity, safety and ethics.

"Virtually all young people are using online Internet technology in some way, shape or form, but we still see a lack of cohesion and disconnect in schools about what they should be doing," said Michael Kaiser, director of the alliance.

The survey of 1,012 teachers, 402 principals and superintendents and 200 school tech specialists was sponsored by Microsoft and carried out in January and February. It had margins of error ranging from 3 to 7 percentage points for the three groups.