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First Do No Harm: How to be an active witness - Tip Sheet
Did you know? Two-thirds of Canadian students have helped someone who was being picked on online. When you see or hear bad things happening online, you have a lot of power to make things better – or worse. Sometimes it’s hard to know the right thing to do, so ask yourself these questions:
Break the Fake Tip #2: Find the source
Because it’s so easy to copy and share things online, it’s important to find out where something originally came from before you decide whether or not to trust it. Someone might have shared it with you on social media, or a news story might be based on someone else’s story.
Helping young kids get a healthy start with devices
Screens and other media are a big part of kids’ lives, and they can be a healthy part too. Here are some ways that you can make sure your kids get the best possible start when using media and digital devices.
Protecting Your Privacy on Commercial Apps and Websites
Almost all of kids’ favourite apps and websites make money from targeted advertising, which uses their personal information to choose which ads to show them. Many of them also sell the data they collect to data brokers, which use information from many sources to make detailed profiles of users. Some also share it with other apps that are owned by the same company, such as Google and YouTube or Instagram and Facebook.
Dealing with fear and media
Research has found that these things are most likely to be scary to children:
Be Respectful, patient and kind: How youth are building a better world online
MediaSmarts asked Canadian teens attending a Digital Youth Summit what they do to make the online world better for everyone. Here’s what they said:
Break the Fake Tip #1: Use fact-checking tools
Sometimes a single search can Break the Fake if a professional fact-checker has already done the work for you.
Helping kids get a healthy start with phones
Phones and other media are a big part of kids’ lives, and they can be a healthy part too. Here are some ways that you can make sure your kids get the best possible start when using media and digital devices.
Family Online Rules
MediaSmarts’ research has shown that kids with household rules about Internet use are less likely to do things like post their contact information, visit gambling sites, seek out online pornography and talk to strangers online. Having a family agreement or set of rules for using the Internet is also a great way for parents and kids to work together on how to be safe, wise and responsible online.