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Community Corner

Parents net digital citizenship tips at Foundation-sponsored workshop

Digital citizenship is not just about staying safe online -- it is about learning to successfully and responsibly navigate the online world. On Feb. 13, the District 58 Education Foundation hosted a digital citizenship workshop as part of a continued effort to partner with families and support students.

 

The session was conducted by Melissa Hemzacek, MSW, an Internet safety specialist from the Illinois Attorney General's Office - High Tech Crimes Bureau. She emphasized the need for families and the community to support children by creating a positive digital culture. During the workshop, parents learned how they can help navigate, monitor and guide their student through social media, how to set limits and facilitate conversations with their children about digital safety, and the importance of setting -- and modeling -- healthy boundaries. By setting age-appropriate limits, such as no phone or device in the bedroom after bedtime, parents are helping to relieve their child's stress and anxiety and promoting pro-social behavior. 

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Hemzacek suggested that parents talk to their children about what it means to know the people they are connecting with versus knowing of them -- or not knowing them at all. Typically child predators target children whose pages are open to the public and who have 600 or more online friends/followers, she said. Many students also post information on their pages or profiles, such as their school name and their hometown, that would make it very easy for them to be tracked down, she said.

Hemzacek discussed speaking with children about self-representation online -- the fact that everything that is posted contributes to a permanent digital footprint which may be searched later by college admissions officers and potential employers. Students should be just as cognizant of the perceptions created by their online behavior as they are about how they are perceived in person, she said.

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She highlighted current trends and digital platforms, such as Kik, Ask.FM and OoVoo. Hemzacek suggested several options for staying up to date with the latest apps that children may be using. Parents can:

  • Visit the app store on their device and check out the current list of the top free apps
  • Set up Google Alerts related to "social networking and teens", which will push related news stories to their inboxes
  • Ask their child what apps they and/or their friends are using

Hemzacek encouraged parents to start a conversation with their children about their online activities. This approach can lead to very positive outcomes not only by keeping the lines of communication open, but also by teaching children the critical thinking and problem-solving skills that will help them to make good decisions, she said.

"Educating them is the most protection that you can give them," Hemcazek said. 

She also provided parents an overview of what she spoke to students about during assemblies at O'Neill and Herrick Feb. 13, which included cyberbullying and safe vs. risky online behaviors.

For information and resources on Internet safety, visit http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/children/internet.html.



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