Raising Good Digital Citizens – Whose Responsibility Is it?

Blog Feature Image: 

pixelized woman.jpg

The end of August marks the beginning of school for many children across the world. As students begin their studies there is a lot to look forward to – new schools, new teachers, seeing old friends and making new ones. At the same time, parents are focused on how they can best prepare their children for a safe and successful year. How can they help them enjoy their studies, perform well, have good relationships with friends, stay active….the list goes on.

As our world, and especially our youth, become increasingly connected, how to behave safely and responsibly online is always on a parent’s mind. How can they ensure youth have the freedom to learn, game, communicate and connect with friends online while keeping themselves and others safe as well? This isn’t easy when you consider the facts:

• According to Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report 2016, there were over one million web attacks against people each day in 2015 and nearly 75 percent of all legitimate websites have unpatched vulnerabilities[1].
• In the US, 92% of teens report going online daily[2], and in the UK one in five 8 to 11 year olds and seven in ten 12 to 15 year olds has a social media profile[3].
• While perpetrators of online attacks are getting savvier, children are using multiple devices to go online including tablets, phones, home and school computers, making it harder to track and protect.

The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) is one organization helping arm parents with the digital knowledge to keep their children safe online. FOSI’s mission is to “make the online world safer for kids and their families” and the organization focuses on three key areas to achieve this:

• Public policy: educating government, communities, parents, and youth about online safety trends and resources
• Industry best practice: hosting events that bring together experts in online safety to discuss best practices
• Good digital parenting: providing a suite of tools to help guide parents in how to set the stage for a safe online experience

As a member of FOSI, Symantec supports their initiative, called Good Digital Parenting, and FOSI’s newly launched “How to be a Good Digital Parent” program. Symantec joins FOSI’s 30+ members that represent the world’s leading ICT companies including Amazon, Yahoo! and others. 

The “How to be a Good Digital Parent” program is a suite of tools that prepares parents to host online safety workshops in their community as well as how to safely navigate the web with their children. Through the program, parents will gain a strong understanding of online safety opportunities and risks, as well as mitigation techniques, learn the “7 Steps to Good Digital Parenting” providing a strategy for managing their family’s safety online, and leave the workshop with a new confidence they can effectively manage their children’s safety online. Materials include a PowerPoint presentation, presenters guide, handouts, FAQs as well as an instructional video.

In addition to the workshop materials parents can leverage FOSI’s Good Digital Parenting webpage for numerous tools including the 7 steps, how to clean up your digital footprint and the three moments you should not miss to talk to your child about online safety. Additionally, this month FOSI is featuring a “Back to School with Digital Parenting” monthly series including articles on bringing the online safety workshop to your school, online safety tools and resources, understanding data privacy, a back to school digital reputation check list, raising good digital citizens and more.  

Whether a parent, cousin, uncle, friend, or technology professional, we all have a responsibility to understand the risks that youth face online, how these relate to the opportunities technology offers us, and the role we play in keeping our online world as safe as possible.