In school your children get marks for citizenship which include how they treat others, showing up for school, how they treat the teacher, etc. But what about online? Can teaching kids Digital Citizenship give them a better foundation for the world online and prevent cyber bullying?
According to StopBullying.gov, it certainly can and it does much more. When children are taught positive online behaviors, social media can be used in productive ways. When they are not, this non face to face environment can leave them exposed to being cyber bullied or to participate in cyber bullying.
Research shows that 95% of American youth ages 12-17 are on the internet. We believe that parents and teachers have a great responsibility to teach our youth how to stay safe and how to use proper etiquette on the internet just as they learn to use it in the classroom. This interesting article by StopBullying.gov has great facts on this topic and tips to teach your kids proper Digital Citizenship skills.
Now is the time to reinforce this with them spending much more of their time online.