During the third week of October, many schools have conversations about student safety and ethics when it comes to tech use. This can include chats about using ChatGPT as a tool, not a voice, as well as what resources are trusted when doing research projects.

Digital Citizenship Week may be the catalyst to a good conversation at school, but when students leave school, they become regular old children…and guess what? That means parents also bear the burden of continuing the conversation about digital citizenship at home.

According to GuardChild, 17% of young teenagers say they have received uncomfortable messages and photos online.

Once a child gets a phone or iPad, the need for digital safety exists. So whether a child is 6 and browsing a popular video app for kids or you have a tween with their own phone, embarking on their own digital journey, here are some things to consider…
+ Parental approval of app downloads is a great place to start. Knowing what apps your child is using allows you to discuss how to safely use various apps.
+ Something may have the word “Kids” in the app, but nothing is absolute. Be sure to inform your children that they should tell you if something seems off about a video they encounter.
+ Some rules to enforce when children are online may be: not allowing friend requests/follows from strangers and not sharing your location or phone number.
+ It may be a good idea to turn the voice chat feature off for young gamers.
+ Have a heart-to-heart talk about really thinking before posting. There are many social media outlets which allow teen accounts, and having them can be a great way for teens to feel connected with friends and their family, too (my son sends me cat videos on Teen Instagram all the time, and it makes my day!). BUT it also increases the need for caution and awareness when it comes to digital footprints. Teen Instagram accounts allow kids an outlet to express themselves, just remind your 13+ child that their future bosses and in-laws could see their posts one day when they go public. While Snapchat teen accounts have increased privacy settings, kids may have a false sense of security. Just because they send something to their “friend”, doesn’t mean it is fool-proof private. Friends can quickly become frenemies when a screenshot of a snap is shared with everyone.
+ Growing up in this modern world means having to decipher what is real. Chat with your child about how they can decipher AI vs real. Some AI generated images may have watermarks (SORA), your child can look for mismatched voice syncing, morphing objects and more. Sometimes fact-checking must also be done.
+ Along with AI, parents must also consider chatting with their children about AI Sextortion. To break it down simply for you, any individual can be AI generated into any scenario. Images can be created using AI to make anyone look like they are doing just about anything. This means completely innocent kids can be AI’d into compromising images. In Kentucky, a teen died by suicide after being threatened to pay $3,000 or else AI generated nude photos would be leaked to his family and friends (click here for more information). Fake images have real life implications, and it is so important that teens know they have someone to turn to in times of need. Have the conversation. It may be uncomfortable, but it could save a life.

Note: Parenting is hard, and unfortunately it is necessary to have serious conversations with kids about digital safety. Beyond that, adults may also want to have a similar conversation with their aging parents regarding digital citizenship. Yep, that’s right… not only do you have to parent your kids, you have to parent your parents, too. Let them know that posts are public and messages are 1:1, there IS such a thing as oversharing, remind them that if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is, inform them about phishing (e-mails asking for information, but the email address is yourtaxguy@notrealwebsite.com), educate them on the fact that not every web store is legitimate and more. The aging population is very vulnerable to scams, so during Digital Citizenship Week, consider having a convo with your ‘rents and your kids, too.

The pros of having tech are bountiful! Saving memories with sweet snapshots, being able to track your family member’s location with apps like Life360 can be reassuring, RING cameras making it easy to answer the door, even when you’re not home, ordering anything you could possibly need and having it delivered within the day! The list goes on and on. But with the many, many pros… the con of danger lurking on the web always exists. Overall, the internet is an amazing place… but it can become scary, too. Be smart, be safe and share how to do so with those you love.