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Digital Safety and Cybersecurity

Digital Safety

Digital safety is the Alaska Digital Literacy Standards in practice. The standards ask students to use technology responsibly, evaluate what they find, and protect their own information and the information of others. Digital safety is what that looks like when something goes wrong: a student who does not know an image can be generated from a yearbook photo, a family that does not know removal is free, a school that does not know who to call. This section gathers vetted, free resources by role.

Why This Matters

Generative tools changed who is at risk. Most online safety guidance assumes a student acts first by sending an image, answering a message, or clicking a link. A photo from a yearbook or a hallway is now enough.

  • More than 400,000 reports to the NCMEC CyberTipline in 2025 involved generative AI. More than 182,000 involved an offender possessing or generating AI-produced child sexual abuse material. A year earlier that category was counted in the thousands.
  • Reports of online enticement rose 158 percent from 2024, from 546,333 to more than 1.4 million.
  • 13 percent of principals reported a bullying incident involving an AI deepfake, including 8 percent in elementary schools.
  • 71 percent of teachers said students caught sharing this imagery faced law enforcement referral, expulsion, or suspension of three days or more. 5 percent said the student in the images was given help getting them removed.
  • 42 percent of high school students have taken a mental health conversation to an AI system. 10 percent of teachers have had any training on recognizing harmful student AI use.

Sources for every figure are in Research and Data.

If a Student Tells You

  1. Stay calm and do not judge. Their first fear may be your reaction.
  2. Do not ask to see the image. Do not forward it, screenshot it, or put it in an email.
  3. Follow district policy for mandatory reporting.
  4. Report to the NCMEC CyberTipline at report.cybertip.org or 1-800-843-5678. Anyone can report.
  5. Removal is free. Point them to takeitdown.ncmec.org. The image never leaves the device and the student does not have to show it to anyone.
  6. Follow the law enforcement path in your district policy.

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Careline Alaska, 1-877-266-4357.

Where to Report in Alaska

Anyone can report, and reports can be made anonymously. For communities off the road system, contact the Alaska State Troopers and the Bureau of Investigation directly rather than a school resource officer.

Resources by Role

Administrators and School Board Members
Educators
Counselors, Nurses, and Student Support Staff
Families and Community

Four things that work at home.

  1. Ask once, ensuring full attention: show me what you do online.
  2. Say in advance that coming to you will not get them in trouble.
  3. Tell them that forwarding an image makes them part of it.
  4. If taking the phone away triggers panic instead of irritation, ask what is going on before you escalate.
For Students, and Adults Working With Them

Research and Data

Where these numbers come from

Request a Presentation

The CISA School Safety Task Force delivers presentations to K-12 audiences at no cost, virtually or in person, for a single classroom or a whole district. Topics include bystander reporting, child exploitation online, bullying and cyberbullying, cybersecurity, threat assessment, and more.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is part of keeping students safe. School networks hold student records, health and counseling notes, staff payroll, and the systems that run meals, attendance, and communication. Protecting that data protects students. This section gathers vetted, free resources by role, so everyone in a school community knows their part.

Why This Matters

Schools are one of the most targeted sectors for cyberattacks. In the 2025 CIS MS-ISAC K-12 Cybersecurity Report, which studied more than 5,000 K-12 organizations from July 2023 through December 2024, 82 percent of reporting schools experienced cyber threat impacts, with nearly 14,000 security events and 9,300 confirmed incidents. The same report found that cybercriminals target human behavior at least 45 percent more than technical vulnerabilities. That makes every staff member, family, and student part of the defense.

Resources by Role

Administrators and School Board Members

Start with the federal K-12 guidance, join a threat-sharing community, and make sure a written incident response plan exists and is regularly tested.

Educators

Teachers are on the front line, because attacks increasingly target people rather than technology. Learn to spot phishing, protect student data, and vet the tools you use.

Support Staff and Business Office

Front office and business office staff handle the requests attackers most want to fake: password resets, vendor payments, direct deposit changes, and W-2 data. A quick IT ticket or phone call to verify a request can stop wire fraud.

Before approving a free AI tool, five questions are worth answering in writing. Does your district already have a policy on AI use? Does the terms of service allow the provider to train its models on what users enter? Is there a written data processing agreement, or only a consumer terms of service? Does the tool state a minimum age your student population meets? Has FERPA and CIPA alignment been confirmed, and is that confirmation written down? The Privacy Technical Assistance Center answers these at no cost, 855-249-3072.

Families

Home devices and accounts connect to school life, so home habits matter. These free resources help families set up devices, talk with kids about online risks, and report harm.

Students

You have more power to protect yourself online than you think. Learn the moves, and know that help is real if something goes wrong.

Careers in Cybersecurity

Pathways for Alaska students

Cybersecurity is a real career path for Alaska students, and it starts with the Computer Science and Digital Literacy standards they already learn. Alaska's large military presence, government, and resource sectors need cyber talent, and the pay is strong. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that information security analysts earned a median wage of $124,910 in May 2024, and in Alaska the mean wage runs above $118,000. From the classroom, students can move into CTE, industry certifications such as CompTIA Security+, and Alaska university programs.

Contact Information

Computer Science and Digital Literacy Specialist