Today is Pink Shirt Day, a national initiative to end bullying both offline and online. Since 2007, Canadians have been donning pink shirts to show their commitment to ending bullying in all forms.
For parents of teens and tweens, the Internet can sometimes seem like nothing more than an ever-expanding list of websites to keep up on: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat and so on, with new ones appearing every few months. While the safety risks associated with these mainstream sites are often exaggerated – and it’s more effective to build broader critical thinking skills than to focus on the particulars of kids’ latest favourite sites – there are some websites that present very real and specific risks and that parents are much less likely to know about. These are the so-called “rogue websites” that offer unapproved access to copyrighted content such as music, movies and video games.
Cyber Choices is an interactive game designed to help students in grades 3 to 5 develop the skills and habits they need to make safe and responsible choices online. Cyber Choices lets students explore four different stories that cover key issues such as making good choices about their own and others’ personal information, dealing with cyberbullying (as both a target and a witness) and managing online conflict.
The Break the Fake: How to tell what's true online workshop will teach audiences four quick, easy steps they can take to spot misinformation and find out if something online is true or not. The workshop includes methods for recognizing AI-generated misinformation, including deepfakes, as well as tips on how to use AI for verifying information.
This lesson allows students to explore the concepts of rules, values and ethics and learn how they influence our decision-making. Students are then invited to consider how they can contribute to create positive online cultures.
This lesson is designed to be delivered after students have completed at least one of the following lessons: Thinking About Hate, Scapegoating and Othering and Hate or Debate. In groups, students research an online environment (such as social networking sites) and a particular example of that environment (such as Facebook) to learn the issues, strategies and tools relating to online hate in that environment.
Today is Safer Internet Day 2016(February 9), and the theme is “play your part for a better internet”. To help you play your part, we’d like to share a new tip sheet by and for Canadian youths on how to make the Internet safer and better for everyone.
Digital wellness is an intentional state of physical, mental and social health achieved through mindful engagement with technology. Instead of worrying about total screen time, research shows that how you use your devices is more important for well-being than how many hours you spend on them.
Time spent using devices is one of parents’ top concerns when it comes to their kids’ digital lives – and is the number one source of conflict between parents and children relating to technology use. News articles that suggest all screen time is harmful also spread much more quickly and widely than those that report more nuanced findings.