Online Relationships: Respect and Consent Lesson Plan

Level: Grades 9-12

About the Author: Matthew Johnson, Director of Education, MediaSmarts

Duration: 1.5 - 2 hours plus evaluation activity

This lesson is part of USE, UNDERSTAND & ENGAGE: A Digital Media Literacy Framework for Canadian Schools.

Overview

In this lesson, students use mind maps to explore concepts of “respect” and “consent” in an online context. They consider a wide range of scenarios that shed light on different aspects of consent relating to digital media and draw on those to create a detailed definition. They then learn about the moral disengagement techniques or “sneaky excuses” that we sometimes use to let us do things we know are wrong, and identify them in short videos. Finally, students create a digital story in which they illustrate one of the aspects of consent or one of the “sneaky excuses.”

Learning Outcomes

Big ideas/key concepts: Students will understand that…

• Digital media are shareable and persistent:
• We are responsible for content we share online, both to the people in it and the people we show it to

Interactions through digital media have a real impact:

• What we do online has the potential to hurt others
• We have a responsibility to treat people online with respect

Key questions:

• What does it mean to treat someone with respect online?
• What is consent? What does it mean in an online context?
• Why do we sometimes do things we know are wrong? How can we avoid doing that?

Misconceptions to correct:

• Jealousy is normal and acceptable in relationships
• People give up the right to consent when they send sexts
• Making an intimate deepfake of someone is not as bad as sharing a sext of them

Essential knowledge: Students will know…

Ethics and empathy: 

• Norms of obtaining and respecting consent
• How “sneaky excuses” (moral disengagement) can keep us from doing the right thing

Making and remixing: 

• Digital storytelling techniques

Performance tasks: Students will be able to…

• Define consent in an online context
• Identify and counter "sneaky excuses" used to justify ignoring or violating consent
• Create a digital story that demonstrates their learning and understanding

Student-friendly outcomes:

• We will learn about the importance of consent online, our responsibility for what we share, and key terms like "moral disengagement" and "sext."
• We will think about what it means to treat others with respect online, what consent looks like in digital spaces, and why people sometimes make poor choices even when they know better.
• We will define online consent, recognize and challenge excuses for ignoring it, and create a digital story to show our understanding.

This lesson and all associated documents (handouts, overheads, backgrounders) are available in an easy-print, pdf kit version.