Perhaps, if we start teaching children at three years old
about cyberethics, we will have children that know how to make smart decisions
about sharing too much personal information, about how to deal with the receipt
of a bully message. Perhaps, we would
live in a world with reduced bully suicides,
with a reduction in missing kids, and with a reduction in revenge porn.
So how do we teach children starting as young as three years old about
cyberethics? Well, you start at the beginning. I would like to introduce you to
the Savvy Cyber Kids. This is Tony and Ema. Tony and Ema are brother and
sister. Tony and Ema go on great
adventures together, that resonate with our children. So how do you start
teaching the cyberethics concepts? Well, you have to start at the beginning
with the technology itself. You have to teach children about what technology is
and the amazing things that you can do with technology. Play games, listen to music, create
music, read, develop, communicate with
others.
On one of their amazing adventures, Ema and Tony encounter
an online stranger. So what do they do? They create superhero identities of
course. Ema creates Cyber Princess, and
Tony creates Cyber Thunder. So when anyone ever asks them online "What is
your name? Where do you live? What school do you go to? Are you a boy? Are you
a girl? What is your favorite sport?"
The only answer is their superhero identity. Cyber Thunder or Cyber
Princess. In another adventure, Cyber Thunder and Cyber princess are playing an
online game, and they encounter a
cyber-bully. With the help of their mom,
they learn how to deal with bullies online and bullies in the physical world.
It is important that we teach our children that not everyone they meet in life
will be nice. It is important that we let our children know how much we value
them and love them. It is important that we teach our children to ignore mean
talk and mean writing directed towards them. We need to build confidence in our
children. We need to help them follow their passions ( raising children).
Throughout history there is a long list of the most famous
people in the world who have come out
and admitted that they were bullied in their youth and many bullied into adulthood. But what
differentiates these successful people from the impact of bullying? They had a
strong support group, they followed their passion. Help your children find
their passion, and follow their passion. And not everyone will agree with the
passion and the path your child may be taking. It may be out of these so called
norms for today's society, but that's perfect for your child. And when your
child is bullied online, tell him to ignore it.
If the capability exists in an app or a game, or something else they are
doing, have them block the offending individual. Make sure your child knows who
their trusted adults are in life so that
if they ever see or hear something that they don't understand, that scares them, makes them feel funny they
know exactly who to come to talk about
it. So you as a parent, you as a
teacher, grandparents, make sure your children know that they can come to you whenever they need
to talk or don't understand
something ( raising children).
This is Adam Norman, a 30-year-old father and a journalist. I consider being a father as my full-time duty, which comes before my actual job of journalism. As a father, there will always be new challenges for me to face everyday while raising my kids. This is where the idea of this website came from. I wanted to give out my experience, along with the experience of others, to all parents out there who need an advice with raising their kids.
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