When I was in school (early 90s-ish) Digital Citizenship was not even a thing. "Digital" was used when referring to the alarm clock that I got from Grandma for Christmas! I don't know if any of the rest of you have gotten to experience the relief of not having to read the hands on a clock any longer- but PHEW was I happy for that alarm clock!
Put simply, the term "Digital Citizenship" means handling your internet interactions responsibly. It is not that different from the traditional concept of citizenship. Our children are now surrounded by this crazy, fast-paced world of technology and are bombarded every single day with new things to try to understand. We set them loose into a scary cyber-world where information, images, videos, and news is (literally) at their fingertips. Many of you have probably added safety features to your children's devices. The school uses protocol and procedures to protect them here. But the reality is, our kids are more tech savvy than we could ever realize or believe! Just this week I spent some time with a class talking about the legality/illegality of taking a screenshot, saving it to your computer and then using it as your wallpaper or profile picture. Is it easy to do? ABSOLUTELY! But is it appropriate? No way. As much as I would love to make a beautiful actress my profile picture- I am not that person and don't have permission to use the image. I compared it to walking into a store. Yes, there are products all around. They are right in front of us as we walk through the aisles. BUT we don't walk out of the store with an apple unless we pay for it first. We don't leave the library with a book unless we request permission first. Online images are the same concept. Just because a Google Search yields results for JoJo does not mean we have permission to use JoJo's picture as the wallpaper on our device. I walked them through ways to search for images that we do have permission to use. (FYI- the easiest way to do that is to add +creative commons to the end of what you are searching.) You are not going to be able to shelter your children from everything they may see or encounter on the internet. But please, open up the door for conversation. Talk to them about your expectations. Give them boundaries. Set protections on their devices. Encourage them to talk to you about things they see as they are on their devices. It never hurts to give a stern reminder that these are valuable tools that we use and it is our responsibility to use them appropriately! I leave you with one last analogy- giving your child free reign of an internet connected device is the same as handing a 15 year old the keys to a Porsche. There will be a basic knowledge of driving and rules of the road but no solid foundation for being safe in a very powerful machine. It is our job to provide guidelines and expectations that will keep them safe! Take a minute to check out these resources for more information: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/privacy-and-internet-safety https://www.parenting.com/article/keeping-your-child-safe-on-the-internet http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/
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