Annual FBI Safe Online Surfing Challenge Invites Classrooms to Compete, Demonstrating Knowledge of Cyber Safety Concepts
SACRAMENTO—With the traditional academic school year underway, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Sacramento Field Office announced the annual FBI Safe Online Surfing Challenge has officially launched.
FBI Safe Online Surfing is a free, always-online, educational website that offers vital cyber safety education and fosters better digital citizenship in a fun and engaging way. It does not require any software downloads or login information for access. The program, launched in 2012, covers age-appropriate topics like cyberbullying, cyber hygiene, password security, malware, social media best practices, and more. The content meets state and federal curricula mandates for grades three through eight.
While designed for students, the program is available to the public, enabling all to explore the program and learn more about cyber safety.
FBI Safe Online Surfing Challenge is a national competition based on the FBI Safe Online Surfing program curricula. To participate, educators voluntarily register their classes prior to administering the test. Any public, private, or home school located within the United States that has at least five students may compete. The secure system facilitates enrollment automatically scores the FBI Safe Online Surfing test and provides educators with the final scores. High-scoring classrooms in each category are displayed on the website.
From September through May, classes with the top monthly exam scores in their school category receive an FBI Safe Online Challenge Certificate and are congratulated by their local FBI field office. St. Alban’s Country Day School in Roseville, California, won the November 2021 FBI Safe Online Surfing (FBI-SOS) Challenge Award for the “Starfish” category, a category for school sites with 5-50 participants in the program. Seventeen eighth-grade students in Kristin Sordi’s computer and technology class successfully completed the Safe Online Surfing Quiz with a combined score of 94.1%.
The FBI Safe Online Surfing Challenge engages classrooms from schools throughout the United States. During the 2021-2022 school year, 18,622 schools participated in the challenge, with 1,511,620 students participating from 99,360 different classrooms. In the state of California, 1,019 schools participated in the FBI Safe Online Surfing Challenge during the 2021-2022 school year, including 87,862 students from 5,210 different classrooms.