Recharging Cyber Chip

Scoutbook Using Scoutbook & Scoutbook Plus
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Reopening this here since other threads have been closed without resolution. Maybe I’m missing something, but this loop is infuriating.

I am a unit leader, in charge of advancement, and a Scout has asked me to update his Cyber Chip so he can go to camp for a merit badge that requires it as a prerequisite.

  1. The Cyber Chip recharge requirements say, after watching two videos “Then, with the unit leader, the Scout can add the new date to the Cyber Chip card or certificate.”

  2. The Scout’s Scoutbook page says “[The scout’s] Cyber Chip has expired! Please visit the NetSmartz.org link below to recharge it.”

  3. NetSmartz.org is not able to “add the new date to the Cyber Chip card or certificate,” the site doesn’t even have a login.

Scoutbook is looking pretty feeble here. Please tell me that I’m wrong and I’m the one missing something.

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I just looked and, unfortunately, there’s still several different landing pages at scouting.org for the Cyber Chip - most are outdated.

Earlier this year BSA took the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Foundation program for Cub Scout aged youth (Protect Yourself) and expanded it to members in Scouts BSA, Venturing, Sea Scouts.

The youth have a choice of continuing with Cyber Chip or using the new Personal Safety Awareness program.

It can be found here: https://www.scouting.org/training/youth-protection/scouts-bsa/

There you’ll see how BSA has a separate video for youth that describes Youth Protection, two-deep, and no one-on-one contact.

I recommend you check it out and have the Scoutmaster guide the Scouts into using it instead of Cyber Chip which seems to be sunsetting.

1 Like
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First, I’ll say that I agree that it’s clunky, both the program itself and the implementation in Scoutbook. However, trying to do it differently in scoutbook would be extremely challenging.

Here’s how I think about each of the issues you mentioned:

  1. There is a space on the physical card to enter the recharge date
  2. I would change the cyber chip completion date in scoutbook and add a note with the original completion date
  3. These references are only to tell you where to go to find the recharge requirements. They are not intended to be linked. It seems Netsmartz has discontinued their support of scouting specific resources. So, we are in limbo until the requirements fully transition to protect yourself rules for Cub Scouts and the personal protection videos for older programs.
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The Personal Safety Awareness series (Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center Foundation) may be used in place of the Cyber Chip requirement for Scout and Star ranks.

However, they are not currently approved as a replacement for the Cyber Chip for merit badges (Digital Technology, Programming, etc.).

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