Plagiarism
Closely associated with intellectual property – but slightly different – is plagiarism.

Closely associated with intellectual property – but slightly different – is plagiarism.

Some of the most common ethical decisions youth face online revolve around intellectual property, but teaching kids to respect intellectual property can be particularly challenging because they may not see this as an ethical issue.

How can we help young people develop affective empathy? The best approach depends on how old they are. Children begin to understand empathy as toddlers, but at this stage they are so completely “in the moment” that the best approach is to watch out for situations where we can model and talk about empathy with them. When a child does something or witnesses something that makes somebody feel sad, quietly explain to them how and why it made them feel that way. (It can be valuable to do this with other emotions, such as fear and happiness, as well.)

In this lesson, students are introduced to the idea that “hot” emotional states can make it harder for them to control how they act. They also discuss the concept of empathy and look at how digital communication can make it harder to feel empathy for other people. Students then read scenarios that portray two sides of an online conflict and consider how to resolve them, using their discussion to build a list of tools for emotional management and conflict resolution online. Finally, students create their own scenario and explain how it could be resolved.

TELUS is a platinum sponsor of MediaSmarts and we are proud to have been working together since 2013. TELUS Wise is a free of charge, digital literacy program, and is a testament to their commitment to empower Canadians to stay safe online. This page showcases some of the TELUS Wise resources we’ve produced together, to help ensure youth have a positive experience in our digital world.

As the Internet has become more and more central to our lives, our online and offline identities have become less and less separate. Where the Internet was once a place where nobody knew we were dogs and we lived Second Lives as customizable avatars, today we mostly surf the Web as ourselves.