Safe Keeping Blog

Today is Safer Internet Day, and with its theme of “Connecting generations and educating each other,” teachers have the perfect opportunity to highlight how much children and adult family members can learn from each other when then meet online and across digital devices.

Fifteen years ago, the internet got a lot of flack. People were skeptical, labeling online interaction as “impersonal” and blaming computers for impending widespread isolation amongst its users.

Jump ahead to today and we’re finding that the doom-and-gloom predictions couldn’t have been more wrong. Instead of undermining interpersonal relationships, technology has brokered a level and frequency of communication that is anything but impersonal.

Nobody knows this more than our students who connect emotionally with others through the internet and their devices. The relationships they create in virtual spaces are very real for them. Now older family members have to meet them there, talk with them there and play with them there, if they’re going to remain relevant mentors in their lives.

Digital is not just for kids
A new study, “Connecting Generations,” released by AARP and Microsoft, reveals that 83 percent of the multi-generational age groups surveyed believe that the internet is a valuable communication tool for family members.

Not only have social platforms made it easier for children, parents and grandparents to communicate, but also these online networks have facilitated a deeper mutual appreciation between young and old. The AARP and Microsoft study reports that 30 percent of grandparents and 29 percent of young adults feel that interacting online has been instrumental in creating common understanding between each other’s generation.

Linking, liking, texting, Skypeing—grandparents are meeting their grandchildren where they are. They’re buying smartphones and tablets, creating Facebook and Flickr accounts, playing virtual Scrabble and uploading vacation videos. They’re doing this in the name of “connecting” with their young ones, motivated by the distance and years that may separate them. And, they’re embracing those beautiful, teachable moments that occur when they’re linked digitally.

By friending their younger relatives on Facebook, commenting on their Foodspotting pics or sharing their favorite apps, adults are positioning themselves as legitimate internet users. They’re becoming privy to a whole new world of hurrahs and heartbreaks that they would have otherwise missed.

Without this insight, grandparents and parents will find it difficult to create a support structure—one that invites their children to seek them out as models of ethical and responsible behavior, online and off.

Online safety takes a village
Research has shown that successful online safety education is dependent upon a joint effort between teachers, children and their families. However, many teachers feel frustrated, believing that they’ve been exclusively saddled with the job of teaching digital literacy to their students.

Although some educators face the challenge of eliciting meaningful parent involvement in their students’ online safety, there are steps that they can take to further bridge the digital and generational gaps between students and the adults in their lives.

• Encourage parents and grandparents to ask their younger ones for tech support. Seven out of 10 teens in the “Connecting Generations” study say that helping their parents get familiar with online activities “gives them the feeling of being more connected to them.”

• Promote online interaction between adults and children. Recommend that parents and older family members meet their children where they are. Skype, Facebook, online games, Flickr, Twitter… there are countless platforms that support multi-generational connection. While students may initially feel that this is intruding upon their privacy, this serves as a perfect illustration that there isn’t such a thing as total online privacy.

• Identify and recruit parents as tech advocates. Seek out those parents that embrace technology and have the capacity to share their knowledge. If you can find at least two volunteers, they can create a network of support that can provide tutorials, training and resources for other parents.

• Regularly share online safety tips and techniques with parents. By regularly sharing a handful of quick, bulleted safety tips, you’re providing talking points to parents who can then initiate discussions around cyber ethics, safety and security with their kids.

• Visit iKeepSafe’s detailed curriculum on “Connecting Generations Through Technology”, at its free curriculum feed for educators.

Parents and grandparents are vital to their children’s digital safety and literacy development. Technology can help them forge a tighter bond if only they commit themselves to experiencing what their children experience online and across connected devices.

To learn more about how to share information with your children or grandchildren, visit the following online safety and digital citizenship support resources:

iKeepCurrent Safer Internet Day Lesson Plan
iKeepSafe’s Generation Safe creates weekly lesson plans that highlight breaking news stories involving cyber safety issues affecting children and teens. There’s something for everyone in these lessons, with adults benefitting from the “parents” and “teachers” sections.

Safer Internet Day 2012 Kit for Schools
The Insafe Network has sponsored Safer Internet Day since 2005. This year, they’re providing education resources to support teachers as they promote stronger and safer connections between their students and older family members.

Digital Citizen in Action Toolkit
Microsoft provides teachers with brochures, fact sheets, PowerPoint presentations and videos that advance digital citizenship understanding in the classroom.

Marsali Hancock is president of the Internet Keep Safe Coalition . She speaks nationally and internationally on digital citizenship issues, including safety, security and ethics. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Brigham Young University.