Introduce your children to the etiquette of sharing and interacting online - start a blog with them!

• When I was 10 years old, my parents convinced me to keep a diary – with the promise that if I kept it up for the whole year, I would be able to go to Hamley’s in London the next Christmas to choose my present. On the whole, it wasn’t a massive success, a lot of the time that day’s entry would be little more than a fleshed out list of what I had done at school. But I persevered and that Christmas we took the trip to Regents Street where I was rewarded with a baseball set and the Gary Lineker board game. Well it was the late 80’s…
  While this didn’t develop into a passion for diary writing, it did allow me to reflect on the activities I was doing – the entries for the weekend were written much more enthusiastically than those on school nights. Consider the modern day equivalent of the diary – the blog. Assuming they are old enough to type, creating a blog with them could reward them with all sorts of benefits that will serve them for years to come, if not for life.
  By starting a blog as a joint project you can be in control of how they first interact online, and shape the habits and the etiquette of the way they share and what they reveal. It costs nothing – there are many blogging sites out there to choose from, and all of them require you log in to post so you can control the password, meaning you don’t have to worry about them gaining access and posting content until you are confident they have learnt the ground rules.
  Use this activity as a spring board to starting discussions about what people put online. That all websites are written by someone somewhere – it doesn’t just magically appear. Talk to them about how people respond to each other, this can lead on to discussing some of the potential negative aspects of online interaction, and how they should be dealt with. All of this can take place within the safety of your supervision and allows you to put into practise what you’ve talked about – far easier to grasp the concept of how much is too much when it comes to what you say about your life.
  Lastly, the potential benefits of teaching your child to be a confident internet user is the world it opens up to them. They can investigate and share their passions, join groups and use their online time to enrich their real world ‘offline’ lives. The things that excite them can open up opportunities for learning and experiences that can shape their futures. Understanding how the technology works will stand them in good stead for future employment, without having to worry about erasing any embarrassing digital foot print.
  

Introducing Your Child to Email and Social Networks in 3 Easy Steps

Chances are your child is already familiar with your smartphone or tablet. So when should you begin the discussion about email, the internet and social media? Right away! If they’re old enough to use these devices on their own they are old enough to start learning about the ways they can be used and, most importantly, how to use them safely. After all, they won’t be watching Peppa Pig on Youtube forever…

By starting this discussion early you are able to control the pace at which they learn and what it is they are looking at as they learn. 

Step 1. Take a photo of something they have made. Whether it’s a drawing, a cake, or simply a mess in a room, take a photo of it on your phone. Show your child – they will be interested because it is something they have made. 

Step 2. Email the photo to someone they know. It could be yourself, your partner or a friend. It helps if they are able to see the email arrive. Let them open the email and the photo within. They will be interested because they can see it disappear and reappear. 

Step 3. Take the photo from the received email and post it on Facebook or Twitter (other social networks are available). Tag people they know to the photos and explain how they will see them. If possible ask the people they know to comment on the photo so your child can see them interacting with what was posted. They will be interested because they feel they are sharing their photo.

In the few minutes it probably took to complete those steps, you have opened up a multitude of conversation topics about how people use email, the internet and social media to connect with one another. Discuss the reasons why people use email, how it compares to writing letters, what people can send to each other (ie files as well as messages). Discuss what people do with social media, how they connect existing friends and make new ones. How to react when they see things or people say things that they don’t like. Whatever it is, start the conversation. Take it slow or leap right in. You know what pace your child. The important thing is that you have started conversations about how to use technology safely and responsibly, conversations that could (given the evolution of how we use technology) last a lifetime.

Making sure anonymous internet use gives pre-teens the right message.

The priority for all e-safety training is safeguarding the privacy of young tech users. Creating pseudonym user names and using avatar profile pictures all go some way to making sure that pre-teens cannot be targeted by those seeking to take advantage of a youngsters lack of experience. It is for this same reason that all social network sites used by adults have minimum age policy for users to be at least 13. Although it is not law in this country the US COPPA regulations state a website must gain parental consent when seeking to gain personal details from anyone below that age. This should mean that pre-teens can explore all that the internet has to offer safe in the knowledge that as long as they do not post personal information they can not be targeted.

But e-safety education should not just be about what others can take from you, but also that you must not take from others. That this anonymity is a shield to protect you, but not one to hide behind whilst hurling the sticks and stones of cyber bullying and online abuse. Online etiquette is as much a part of e-safety training as protecting your personal information. Ensure that when discussing e-safety with children you spend as much time on online etiquette as you do on protecting privacy, teaching them that interacting online is still interacting with another person with the same feelings that they have. Just because they can not see the other person, who will also mostly likely also be using a pseudonym and avatar, that they realise that person is real. If a young user believes that their anonymity gives them the right to act with impunity, it will set a dangerous precedent for their adult tech use.

Don't blame the sites for trolls, but don't trust them to protect you either.

**This blog was originally posted on techsavvykids.co.uk on 17/08/13**

So, another tragic story emerges of a teen committing suicide as a result of online bullying, this time 17yr old Daniel Perry following on recently from that of 14yr old Hannah Smith. Again a social networking site is implicated - although it was noted that Skype also played a part in the Perry case, Ask.fm was cited in both and is bearing much of the blame for not monitoring its users diligently enough. While I wholeheartedly agree that any networking site that does not monitor and block users that part take in trolling or any form of bullying is effectively condoning the act, I can't help but feel that you need to apply blame to those sending the messages, not the site through which they are sent.
Whether computers, the internet and social networks exist or not, there will always be those that wish to prey on the vulnerable and they will find a way to do it. The internet has simply given the bullies a convenient appearance of anonymity and extended their reach. Social networking sites are connecting people from across the globe, and the chances are that the site that you are using is not even based in the same country as you.
When children under 13 use networking sites, by law avatars and pseudonyms must be used to protect the users privacy. This may in turn reinforce their lack of connection with those they are interacting with, so that by the time they are using social networking sites as teenagers they do not see the user on the other computer as an actual person, but as a just another fictional avatar.
What we can do though is educate our children and students to be aware of the dangers of interacting with others online as soon as they are old enough to start going online independently – and what to do if they do encounter bullying or offensive behaviour. Most sites should have a facility to flag offensive messages or block users. We must also remember that those posting the offensive messages are people too, someone’s children, possibly someone’s students. Part of teaching how to deal WITH the offensive behaviour should be teaching how TO behave when online. As with the playground, what can start off as harmless teasing can evolve into something more sinister. It is all of our responsibilities to make sure our children are taught how this behaviour affects others, as well as how it can affect them.

Why I started the Tech Savvy Kids website…

I am not a technology expert. I don’t have a background in IT or in Education. What I do have are two daughters under six who both love to use mummy and daddy’s tablet and smart phone. The eldest is now also starting to show an interest in the laptop with its mysterious lack of touchscreen functions.
At first it was such a cute sight to watch them show their curiosity with these items. To see as they learned to swipe their fingers across the screen, move from one game or app to another, to make the device respond to their touch. Then they progressed to playing the games we had downloaded for them, watch videos on YouTube or on I-Player. Then, slowly realising that actually, your child was probably more interested in playing with this thing in their hand than they are with you. It began to dawn on me that maybe I should gen up on how these devices affect children and what we would need to do to make sure they were exploring technology within the safest environment possible.
Reading articles on the internet turned up the usual polarising material, ranging from fire and brimstone ‘technology will damage your child forever’ to the more benign ‘technology will help your child’s development’. Of course, as with all things moderation is the key. But one thing that did strike me when reading these articles was the level of ignorance of all parties. The age old joke is that the child can work the video/TV/microwave better than the parent, as children love to learn how to work new ‘toys’. However, when these ‘toys’ can access unlimited content how can you be sure that they are only looking at what is suitable. I am coming at this from the perspective of a parent of very young children. Obviously parents of older children will want to widen the scope of what they can see, but the point is they still need to understand HOW they are viewing it. You can control what you have inside your own home, but when devices allow you to look outside how do you ensure they are doing so safely?
Children develop quickly, technology develops fast too. My reasoning is, that if you want to understand how your child is interacting with the outside world using technology, you need to stay up to date. You and your child can learn this together, bond over the shared experience of discovering what using these devices are capable of. But at the same time know that the technology and systems you are using are set up appropriately. Communicate to your children how they should behave online, as, although they are safely behind a screen – they should still apply the same caution as when interacting with strangers in the ‘real’ world.
This site was started to learn and share this information. A repository of useful links and advice about how to explore the potential that technology can offer us, and know that my daughters – and I – can do so confidently and safely.
Dan