Hello everyone,
This week I wanted to talk about cyber safety and try to recall some memories of my experience of cyber safety awareness in Highschool. I used this creepy ad picture because there are many approaches and tactics one can use to inform the kids of our generation of the responsibility of the web. When it comes to the discussion of my secondary school experience and cyber safety awareness, I can recall none. And the reason for this is that I have a lot of proof as to why this was the case. The proof is as listed:
-I added almost everyone that added me on Facebook that I had somewhat heard of or glanced at. I had never talked to them. It was about follower count.
-I posted selfies, food, and full-body photos, on my Instagram and Facebook with a public profile for the longest time before I made my account private when I was 18.
– The information I posted was things about my personal life, my place of residence, and my phone number.
-My cellphone had numbers from people that were added that if I had two Emilys on my cellphone, I had no idea how to differentiate between the two.
So these issues I believe was direct evidence of someone that had no idea of the negative impact and effects of digital citizenship. My parents just began to raise their kids in a culture where technology was growing fast. The first cellphone I had was when I was 13 with a 39 text limit. But then texts started to become unlimited, and so did the access to other people. Then I had my first blackberry when I was in my teens, and so I started to utilize cell phones the same time as my parents started having Razor cellphones in 2009.
Since I do not have a direct experience of cyber awareness from my schooling experience that I can asses, let me discuss my approach. I believe it is the responsibility of the parent of the child to be aware of the negative repercussions of social media. We are in a generation and culture now where millennial parents, such as myself, of the generations that followed, understand the technology and its impact. The issue with technology is that it is always one step ahead. So for parents, where it is almost vital to feel as though you are one step ahead of the child in their life, this is a difficult issue to tackle. I think that parents need to explain to kids why they set boundaries and the impacts of their children’s presence on social media. Once children reach a certain age, it is difficult for parents to manage their social lives as they become independent. We need to start being aware of our children’s choices and actions and informing them early on. Hopefully together, we can all work on building a safer, kinder, and more interactive experience with the web.
Cheers,
Jorden
