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It’s easier than ever to know the whereabouts of your family and friends. There are devices you can buy with wearable GPS systems. Effectively, you can be traced and tracked by loved ones.

Snapchat, the mobile app that lets users send "self-destructing" photos, has the distinction of being the only digital tool that does not have a single redeeming feature. While the moral panic associated with blogs, cell phones, social networks and online games has largely faded in grudging recognition of their more positive uses (indeed, research shows that many parents have actually helped their children lie about their age register for Facebook accounts), Snapchat is seen as the Q-tip of the digital age: its sole function is to do the thing that you're warned not to do on the box.

A recent issue of Entertainment Weekly was devoted to a list of so-called “new classics,” a top one-hundred list of the best movies, books, TV shows, and so on, published since 1983. The lists themselves are liable to provoke discussion (Die Hard is #9, ahead of Goodfellas, Schindler's List and Unforgiven?) but perhaps a more interesting question is whether, in the Media Age, the very idea of a “classic” still means anything.

When it comes to digital wellbeing, one of the most important things is to establish an ongoing conversation with your children about their online lives. There is no one size fits all; every family can develop strategies that work best for them. But having access to a wide range of tools can help you adapt those strategies at every stage of your kids’ journey. Here are some of the key principles for those conversations:

Financial Literacy 10 is a required course in the Core Curriculum.

Outcome:
FL10.1: Explore how value systems, social factors, personal experiences and cultural backgrounds can influence financial decision-making.
Indicators:
(c) Explore how social influences and personal experiences shape one’s attitudes toward financial decision-making.
(f) Discuss how community and societal norms (e.g., expectations regarding gender roles) influence the financial well-being of self, family and community.

MediaSmarts has developed four online multimedia textbooks to support the Ontario curriculum for Language 1-8 and English 9. These freely available textbooks are designed to give educators flexibility in meeting both the Overall Expectation relating to Digital Media Literacy (A2) but also related Overall and Specific Expectations in the A, C and D strands, including Critical Thinking in Texts; Creating Drafts; and Publishing, Presenting and Reflecting.