According to statistics, over 90% of US teens are active Internet users. These days, kids have free access to the web and all the sources, services, and tools available out there. They use them for all kinds of purposes, including studying. But though modern students can be called true digital natives, in practice, many of them still don’t know the basics of online responsibility.
Being unable to use the web responsibly, young people face many risks, including privacy issues, scams, and more. In order to keep them safe, we have to educate them on online responsibility and ensure that they have everything they need to stay safe on the Internet.
In this article, a professional essay writer and an expert in the digital security field will tell you the most vital tips for teaching teens online responsibility.
1. Educate Students on Privacy
First of all, online responsibility stands for the ability to protect yourself and your personal data while browsing the Internet. And this ability is especially vital for students. These days young adults spend lots of time on the web using different types of online services. They communicate via social media, hire essay writers to cope with their papers, etc. In order to help young people ensure their privacy, it’s important to educate them about it, explain how different websites can track or collect their data, and teach them effective methods for protecting their privacy.
2. Teach Them How to Distinguish Trustworthy Services
As mentioned earlier, modern students leverage plenty of online services for communication, entertainment, and study purposes. Respectively, they are at a high risk of falling into the frauds nets. Let’s say a student is struggling with a hefty academic load and decides to hire a cheap essay writer. On the Internet, there are hundreds of services that offer such an opportunity. And, of course, not all of them are trustworthy. Therefore, we must teach them early on how to distinguish a good online source, for example, a research paper writing service, from a fraudulent one. This is one of the basics of online responsibility and security.
3. Explain the Role of Critical Thinking
As was said earlier, the Internet is full of scams. And this applies not only to online services but also to people and sources of information. Thus, just like when choosing a reliable essay writer help service, students should apply critical thinking even when searching for information online or meeting a new person on the web. It’s important to educate students that not everyone on the web is who they say they are. Similarly, not all information you find online is true and worth trusting. So, it’s important to teach kids how to apply a critical thinking approach to everyone and everything they encounter on the web.
4. Define the Importance of Online Reputation
When someone talks about online reputation, most people believe that this is something only businesses and famous people should bother about. However, this is a false belief. Maintaining an impeccable online reputation is just as important for a regular person (whether a teen or adult) as it is for a businessperson, history essay writer, actor, etc. Often, the negative consequences of posting something as a teen can haunt you in different spheres of your future life, including employment. Thus, when teaching youth about online responsibility, we also have to explain to them the importance of online reputation. They need to know that anything that goes on the Internet can be very hard or even impossible to remove from there and that it can cause them real problems in the future.
5. Emphasize the Importance of Mutual Respect
Most of us have been taught to respect others and expect respect back in face-to-face relationships. This is something obvious to most teens. However, when it comes to interacting online, this rule seems to fade away a little. The statistics of cyberbullying are very alarming. Around 37% of teens between 12 and 17 report being bullied online at least once, and 30% report that it happened more than once. Also, 23% of students confess to saying or doing something mean to others online, and 27% say that someone else has said or done it to them. With that being said, here is the final tip from an expert essay writer online – emphasizing the importance of mutual respect is also crucial when teaching teens online responsibility.
The Bottom Line
Being responsible online means knowing how to use the web safely and interact with others in a lawful and adequate manner. Unfortunately, although the basic rules of online responsibility sound pretty obvious, many people, especially youth, still overlook them too often, which can lead to numerous negative consequences.
Luckily, after reading this guide, you know how to teach youth online responsibility and also how to get more responsible yourself. Use these tips to create a better and safer online environment around you!
