The children have been doing lots of work to find out how a good digital citizen acts online. For the last two weeks the children in Room 15 have been investigating and writing reports about digital citizenship. Ask your child to share their information report with you.  

02/3/2015

Izzy

What is a digital citizen? A digital citizen is a person who uses online devices for many different purposes such as shopping, online gaming, searching information and downloading music and videos. A digital citizen is many things and holds many values, it requires responsibility and respectfulness online.

Did you know you could be traced online? It is a thing called a digital footprint which is a trace of you throughout the internet. Everything you search, download, look at and every account you make is stored in the Cloud under your IP address. It is permanent and can never be fully deleted. Your daily apps such as: Google, YouTube, Facebook, Spotify and lots more all leave a digital footprint because you have looked at those certain apps.

It is very important to keep safe online because it can affect your life not only on the Internet but in the real world too. A way to keep safe is to not give away any personal or private information online to people that you do not know. If possible make your account private or make a setting to friends only. No one likes to be hacked so it's a good idea to make your account as secure as possible. That means making an uncommon password which is hard to guess but easy for you to remember like something special to you not something obvious.

Would you like to see a bad message that is aimed at you? Probably not. This represents cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is when one person bullies another using the internet, social media, online gaming and text messaging. Cyberbullying includes mean texts, emails and posting embarrassing pictures or mean comments on blogs or websites. Think before you react. You should never retaliate to a bad message because that can make the situation worse and possibly become a daily conversation. STOP CYBERBULLYING!!! Stand up for others if they are having a hard time because sometimes if you are being severely bullied, all you need is a couple of positive words to cheer you up.

Sometimes when there is a program that offers you a great deal, running behind that is another program called Spyware. Spyware collects your information and uses it sometimes. When a pop up ad comes on your device wanting information about you and then you can win a great prize, close the website it takes you to and tell somebody.

When using the Internet,  there are responsibilities. You need to know when to exit a website, what to search and what not to search and when to close a pop up ad. One responsibility is to never ever look up any inappropriate websites, items or images because there will be a consequence of a big fine or even time in jail.  Another responsibility is to remember if you do have an account for social media of some sort, never give out any personal or private information such as your address, e-mail, last name, passwords and information about your family and friends. Do not trust anyone you do not know because they are not always who they say they are. The device you’re using whatever it is, respect it and take care of it.

In conclusion, a good digital citizen is someone who looks after their device, knows when to close an ad or website which is inappropriate and respects themselves, friends and family and the wider community. They stand up for cyberbullying and do not share any private information to people that they do not know.