We all consider ourselves citizens of the world, global citizens. But, do you realize we’re also digital citizens?
That was the topic of last week’s Family Online Safety Institute conference in Washington, DC, where I had the privilege of being on the panel,Exploring Why Kids Behave The Way They Do OnLine, and interacting with the industry’s top movers and shakers in industry, research and policy.
The overriding theme of the two day conference was digital citizenship…in particular “Building a Culture of Responsibility: From Online Safety to Digital Citizenship.” We heard every topic imaginable from what’s happening in technology to keeping our kids safe online to topics on how parents can talk to kids about being better digital citizens to why schools need to step into the digital age, finally!
If you haven’t stopped to contemplate the fact that we live in a digitally connected world, you should. It can be easy to go through each day not thinking outside our own towns and communities but the reality is our globe is truly connected. Even countries with few economic resources have cell phones and internet access these days. We heard stories about that sort of interconnectivity last week as well.
From their earliest experiences online, even with games such as Club Penguin or WebKinz, our kids recognize how connected they are to the greater world. Our job is to teach them how to be safe in that space and how to act appropriately.
The best way of teaching good behavior is by modeling that ourselves. If we practice good digital citizenship, so, too, will our kids. Right now, the etiquette we practice offline goes out the window online and we have to put an end to that. If we do that, our kids will follow suit.
In addition, as our younger children come online, we should be talking about these issues and helping them view the world as one world. They will actually have an easier time acting responsibly on and offline since this is the only world they know…assuming we provide solid role models and talk to them about the issues.
Our world is based around communities and we are citizens of them all. Some are close to home. Some are far from home, and some are online. In today’s world, we should have the same good rules of behavior for all situations and that’s what we have to strive for.
For most children, their family is their first exposure to a community. Use the time you have around the dinner table to reinforce issues of citizenship, on and off line. If you let your kids know that these issues are important to you, they’ll feel empowered enough to come to you more when digital issues arise…and that’s the true end game in internet safety.
Good post, Gwenn. I struggle to separate myself at times and I can see it in my son who has a new Touch. The culture does start at home.