This is a sponsored post, thanks for supporting The Mama Maven Blog
Did you know that October is National Bullying Prevention Month? We all know that the internet can be a terrific place when things are positive or miserable when people bully other people. We want to teach our children to promote positive interactions and find ways to ensure that they never make someone uncomfortable. Teaching Kids To Make Good Decisions Online and Be Internet Awesome
What we know about bullying:
This month, I’m partnering up with Google for Education to promote their Be Internet Awesome Internet campaign to pass on positive messages to share that the “Golden Rule” is important online (as well as offline).
Be Internet Awesome is Google’s free multifaceted program designed to teach kids the fundamentals of digital citizenship and safety so they can explore the online world with confidence. The program is available in English and Spanish and consists of an ISTE standards aligned curriculum, ready-made Pear Decks for each lesson, Interland – an adventure-packed online game about digital safety and citizenship – and plenty of resources for educators and parents.
The five areas of Internet awesomeness:
- SMART: Where we learn to share with care
- ALERT: Where we learn not to fall for fake
- STRONG: Where we learn how to secure Our digital stuff
- KIND: Where we learn that itʼs cool to be kind
- BRAVE: Where we learn that, when in doubt, we talk it out
Making Good Decisions Online:
My oldest child is now 13 and has been on the internet since he was 7, when he and his dad started sharing a laptop. Even though I’ve been blogging since he was a baby and used the internet for a long time, I didn’t really think to tell him how he could act. We let him play Minecraft and were upset to find out he was using the chat function. We shut that down pretty fast but let him play Minecraft. Fast forward to him getting his own smartphone. He started thinking that he could just do what he wanted online and that’s just not the case. We want him to consider actions, consider that what he says could be on the internet FOREVER, and could impact others, just as well as other people can impact him.
Basically, we want our son and his siblings to make good decisions when choosing what to say on the internet and how to deliver it. You can express yourself and still do it respectfully and positively. My mother always told me to treat people the way I wanted to be treated and this goes as well
So, how can you start a conversation with your kids about this?
Google for Education suggests starting with this:
Let your kids know that kids their age are exposed to all kinds of online content, some of it with negative messages that promote bad behavior.
ASK
“Have you (or anyone you know) seen someone be negative on the web? How did that make you feel?
Have you (or anyone you know) ever experienced a random act of kindness on the web? How did it make you feel?
What simple actions can we take to turn negative interactions into positive ones?
After your kids give their thoughts, you can add, “We can respond to negative emotions in constructive ways by rephrasing or reframing unfriendly comments and becoming more aware of tone in our online communication”
The takeaway should be that “reacting to something negative with something positive can lead to a more fun and interesting conversation – which is a lot better than working to clean up a mess created by an unkind comment.”
What else can you do?
Play Interland with your kids and put your kindness skills to the test at g.co/KindKingdom
Learn more about how to Be Internet Awesome at g.co/BeInternetAwesome and tell your kids’ teachers about the online curriculum so they can introduce these activities in the classroom.
Download Curriculum right here: Be Internet Awesome Curriculum
For more info: Go to: g.co/BeInternetAwesome
What are some of the tips you would share with other parents on how to teach children to act kind online?
Check out our event recap post: https://www.themamamaven.com/how-to-help-kids-be-kind-online-google-for-education-moms-night-out-recap/
I love that kind and brave are two of the values- so important in online spaces!
I point out behavior that i don’t like when they are watching youtube videos and stuff. I think they learn to recognize it in others first.
It’s so important that kids learn about being responsible on the internet. Not only to be kind, but safe, and realize that their words are meaningful and once you put something out there, you can’t take it back.
A topic my girls and I talk about all the time. It super important to talk to our kids about making good decisions when using the internet.
This is so important in this day and age. Thank you for sharing all of these great internet tips!
Such a very interesting and informative post to read. I can say that this is such a great program to teach the kid to be kind even in a cyber world.
You can never have enough reminders about internet safety. The world is changing so fast, and that includes technology!
What great info. It is such a scary world. I think sometimes I am naive.
This is so helpful for me. My daughter has to be online way more now than ever so I want all the safety I can get!
I think that this is a great program that Google has started. It is so important for kids to know how to act on the internet.
I absolutely adore this! I think the key to ending bullying is to stop it before it starts. We stop it by promoting kindness and empathy.