Do You Practice Digital Citizenship?

Online predators, hackers, phishers, data leaks and regretful social media posts are a few of the dangers that exist online. Digital Citizenship helps prepare internet users for online expeditions.
Considering that virtually anyone who uses the internet on a semi-regular basis can be considered a ‘digital citizen’, it’s curious that few people actually know the meaning of the term, much less what active and responsible digital citizenship entails. According to a widely-used definition, “digital citizenship can be defined as the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with regard to technology use.”
This seems like a very basic and fundamental concept to heavy internet users who are adults; generally, we know that putting areas of our lives online entails a certain amount of risk, and so we’re used to perhaps moderating our behavior when it comes to what we share, where we share it, and how we protect information that we do not want to be widely disseminated. But for young people coming of age in the internet era, we have to keep in mind the biological fact that their decision making and risk assessment skills aren’t necessarily operating at the adult level yet. We can hardly expect them to reasonably and effectively make wise decisions when it comes to their behavior online when we haven’t provided them with any tools with which to do so. That is why digital citizenship education is so crucial.
The pitfalls of not providing young people with adequate education on how to be a good digital citizens are many. Running into predators online, being targeted by hackers or phishing expeditions, accidentally leaking personal data, putting up social media content they later regret, or having people use their data/content in a way they didn’t initially intend for it to be used are just some of the ways that young people can get into trouble online. Thinking that we can shield kids from these myriad risks is simply unrealistic. The benefits of giving young people access to the internet at a young age are immense,  so, instead of overprotecting them or over-monitoring their online behaviors, it’s much more realistic and modern to empower them.

The importance of this has implications far beyond their immediate safety. As the Los Angeles Times recently reported, “27% of universities look at applicants’ social media profiles … while 35% of college entry decisions are negatively affected by what admissions officers find.” Failure to think about one’s digital profiles throughout high school threatens to derail a young person’s future before it’s even begun.
So, what comprises a good digital citizenship curriculum? Authors Mike Ribble and Gerald D. Bailey, who are considered pioneers of digital citizenship in the education space, developed what they deem to be the nine elements of digital citizenship: digital access, digital commerce, digital communication, digital literacy, digital etiquette, digital law, digital rights and responsibilities, digital health and wellness, and digital securities. As these categories show, it’s not just about risk mitigation, but also about teaching youth the best ways they can leverage the wealth of information online to expand their horizons and reach their goals. If educators take the authoritarian approach without the empowerment alongside it, kids are unlikely to take their lessons to heart, so any good program should holistically integrate all of these.

There are many leaders in the digital citizenship education space that educators looking to develop programs would be well-served to emulate. Commonsensemedia.org is a San Francisco based non-profit organization that provides open sourced resources and best practice guidance to educators looking to introduce programs. With a slogan of “we believe in sanity, not censorship”, their approach is modern enough to effectively resonate with young people. School districts throughout California have been implementing programs in this space, with the Los Angeles Times reporting on a Southern California district that had implemented a program to give students the ability “to understand, evaluate and synthesize multiple online sources, delineating between credible information and outdated—or potentially inaccurate—space junk.”

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