Why Digital Citizenship Must Be Taught in Schools

Posted: January 01, 1970

[caption id="attachment_9970" align="alignright" width="365"]© Scanrail - Fotolia.com[/caption]With the advances in technology, and users becoming younger and younger, should "digital citizenship" – lessons in technology and the Internet, and their proper use – be integrated into our schools? Scott Steinberg, author of “The Modern Parent’s Guide to Kids and Video Games” explains why it should.

Wake up and smell the silicon: From smartphones and apps to computers and social networks, technology has permanently invaded kids’ lives, much to the benefit of parents and educators. But with the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad now topping children’s wish lists, kids aged 2 to 5 are more equipped to run apps than tie their own shoelaces. In the rush to place high-tech and mobile devices in so many hands, we’re also doing perilously little to prepare adults and kids alike for life in a connected world, potentially endangering future generations.

According to the latest Norton Online Family Report, nearly 62 percent of children worldwide have had a negative experience online — nearly four in ten involving serious situations, i.e. cyberbullying or receiving inappropriate photos from strangers. A whopping 74 percent of kids active on social networks say they’ve found themselves in unpleasant situations alone, while additional surveys reveal that nearly eight in ten have witnessed acts of meanness or cruelty on Facebook, Google+ or other similar services.

It’s a serious problem when three out of every four middle and high school kids own a cellphone, yet a quarter of adolescents say parents know little or nothing about what they’re doing on the Internet. Even more so when you consider that 20 percent of kids won’t tell parents about negative online experiences for fear of getting into trouble, according to Norton’s findings.

Welcome to the digital age — an era increasingly defined by a growing gulf between those who grew up with technology and those to whom modern-day advancements such as apps, cloud computing and smartphones remain esoteric. And, for that matter, one in which experienced role models able to provide positive, real-world solutions for addressing new and emerging problems (e.g. cyberbaiting, sexting and live broadcasting of personal data) are increasingly hard to find. For previous generations, parents and grandparents could serve as a vital source of wisdom and learning for all things family-related. But like many of today’s educators and experts, they too are facing the stark reality of having never been confronted by life in a world of 24/7 online streaming downloads, instant mobile video sharing, and innocent mistakes that live on in infamy forever via the Internet.

Read the complete article Why Digital Citizenship Must Be Taught in Schools.