Six Grade 7 students at Stonybrook Middle School were presented with brand new laptops as part of the 'Kids, Cops, and Computers' program.

Steinbach RCMP Community Constable Dennis Redikop says the program is in partnership with the Merry Go Round Children's Foundation and RCMP Foundation to give students a laptop to do their assignments at home, where they otherwise wouldn't have that kind of resource.

"There a small twist in it where the students have to meet specific criteria. They have to be motivated to learn, have good community citizenship, and pretty much motivated to their full potential. They're eager to learn but maybe the families can't really afford a second computer or their computers are old and they can't work on their assignments at home."

Redikop notes the catch is these students are required to complete five sessions with corresponding assignments to teach them about online responsibility and proper conduct.

"It's going to be lunchtime sessions. So, it's going to be about half-an-hour during their lunchtime [once a month] and I'll be coming to the school talking about what it's like to be a police officer, cyberbullying, about responsibilities, and all those kinds of things."

Redikop adds cyberbullying is something he as a police officer sees on a very regular basis.

"It's a norm in our world, we see that on a daily basis pretty much. We do attend calls for that. It's often as simple as shutting down social media or blocking someone. Often people don't take those steps and it's about teaching students from a young age about what to do."

He says in today's society computers are a huge part of school but students also need to be taught responsibility and how to conduct themselves properly to avoid negative online experiences.