Digital Citizenship Tips for Teens
For teens, we offer five simple rules of digital citizenship to help them create a world they can be proud of -- and inspire others to do the same.
Think before you post or text -- a bad reputation could be just a click away. Before you press the "send" button, imagine the last person in the world that you’d want seeing what you post.
What goes around comes around. If you want your privacy respected, respect others' privacy. Posting an embarrassing photo or forwarding a friend’s private text without asking can cause unintended hurt or damage to others.
Spread heart, not hurt. If you wouldn’t say it in person, don’t say it online. Stand up for those who are bullied or harassed, and let them know that you’re there for them.
Give and get credit. We’re all proud of what we create. Illegal downloading, digital cheating, and cutting and pasting other people’s stuff may be easy, but that doesn’t make it right. You have the responsibility to respect other people’s creative work -- and the right to have your own work respected.
Make this a world you want to live in. Spread the good stuff. Create, share, tag, comment, and contribute to the online world in positive ways.
This is a really interesting and challenging legal issue. The article is an opinion piece on current anti-bullying legislation in Iowa. The author takes a position against the bills' position that schools have authority to discipline cyber-bullying issues outside of school hours. The author's position is that the bill violates students' first amendment rights. I would tend to agree, although anytime a teacher does set up a forum through facebook, twitter, or some other public sharing place, the school does have the responsibility to teach cyber-citizenship and monitor those forums created through or by the school. For example, if a classroom teacher has students create twitter accounts for class or a facebook group for a lesson, then the school has the responsibility to get involved. The lines do get blurred, though, and it is not a 'cut and dried' situation that one bill can adequately respond to on it's own.
