Being a good digital citizen involves a set of vital skills that everyone, from parents to teachers to children, needs to have in order to use technology appropriately. It’s important to equip technology users of all ages with knowledge about digital citizenship, including information about topics such as how to keep yourself safe online and how to avoid being scammed or otherwise taken in by bad information. In addition, people need to be educated about the proper standards of behavior online, as this is a key element in preventing inappropriate or even criminal acts.
The issue of digital citizenship has been getting more attention around the globe, and this domain goes by many names, such as digital wellness or digital ethics, but all of these terms describe how we should act when we’re online and what we should be teaching to the next generation. The foundations of good digital citizenship deal with eight major areas.
- Internet Safety: Protecting your online privacy is a fundamental part of staying safe on the Internet. A big part of this is being able to tell when someone else’s behavior is inappropriate and taking the necessary action to stop it. For instance, while someone you interact with online might seem nice at first, it’s important to be wary at all times and trust your instincts: If something just doesn’t feel right, pull back from the situation.
- Privacy and Security: It’s vital for everyone, especially children and teens, to learn early on who they can trust with their information on the Internet. While there are security programs and privacy settings to be aware of, which can help block things like computer viruses and tracking cookies and protect your online privacy, you don’t need a master’s in cybersecurity to keep yourself or your family safe. It can’t be stressed enough how important it is to create a very strong password for any accounts you have online. Starting from an early age, kids can learn about how important it is to ask for permission before creating an account or downloading a file, for example. By developing skills pertaining to privacy and safety on the Internet, kids can lay a strong foundation for their rest of their digital lives.
- Relationships and Communication: When kids connect with other people online, it can undoubtedly affect the way they behave. Because they’re behind a screen, they can feel less pressure and feel more removed from potential consequences. When they are anonymous online, people tend to be more irresponsible, cruel, and unethical. Therefore, it’s important for kids to follow a code of conduct when using the Internet and treat it as if they’re interacting with others in the real world. Not only should people be good citizens in reality, but they should be digitally as well.
- Cyberbullying and Digital Drama: Cyberbullying remains a very big issue in today’s digital society, so it’s important to teach younger people how to behave politely online as well as how to respond if they become the target of a cyberbully or if they are otherwise the target of hurtful behaviors.
- Digital Footprints and Reputation: It’s important to learn to protect your own privacy, but adults, teens, and kids alike should also respect the privacy of others. Anything that’s posted online can stay there forever, and each and every post is part of someone’s digital footprint. It’s vital to be aware of the footprint you’re leaving online and how it could potentially come back to haunt you later on. Respect the privacy of others online when tagging, posting, or copying personal information.
- Self-Image and Identity: Your self-image and identity are a large part of your digital citizenship. By being able to customize your own avatars and text, for example, people have opportunities to express themselves digitally. Playing around with creative identities can prove to be an imaginative method to allow younger individuals today to explore who they really are.
- Information Literacy: In this day and age, it’s more important than ever to have the ability to use and evaluate digital information effectively. Information literacy makes you more well-versed in evaluating the quality and credibility of websites along with the intentions of online advertising. With information literacy, you’re better able to process what you’re seeing digitally and why.
- Creative Credit and Copyright: Giving credit for someone else’s creations is a very important part of digital citizenship. It’s important to know about the rights to copyrighted work, how to identify copyrighted work that isn’t in the public domain, how to know what constitutes fair use, and what piracy and plagiarism are along with the consequences of them. Copyright infringement is unlawful, unethical, and wrong!
For more information and resources about digital citizenship and online safety, check out these sites:
Previously, we’ve offered a definition of digital citizenship in the past. Below, we offer some specific examples of good digital citizenship. From communicating with on social media with clarity and respect to respecting other’s privacy to thinking critically and carefully about ideas and conversations and events before responding or contributing, practicing good digital citizenship is often a matter of the golden rule–and a little bit of common sense.
20 Examples Of Digital Citizenship
1. Think Critically
It may not seem so, but thinking clearly and critically is at the heart of any form of citizenship. That’s actually a worthwhile topic for another post entirely, but for now, consider that thinking critically about the things you read online [and off]–especially sensationalized headlines and other misleading or polarizing content meant to elicit an emotional response in readers–is good digital citizenship 101.
Also examples? Avoiding cognitive bias and logical fallacies, fact-checking information, grasping the subtleties in points being made in published content or social media, and more are all examples of digital citizenship.
2. Monitor
Monitoring the net effect of your activity online–both the effect of online ‘on you’ and how you affect things online.
3. Respond
Responding to a question you have the background or knowledge to answer.
Responding to a comment you disagree with–but doing so with respect and acknowledge of alternative perspectives and the standards upon which your position rests–is an example of digital citizenship.
4. Contribute
Adding helpful information/context to a discussion or wiki page.
5. Cite
Citing the source of the original source of information or media on twitter or tagging the original rights holder on Instagram.
6. Elevate
Elevating a discussion–the tone of an interaction in a discussion on Quora or YouTube, for example–is an example of good digital citizenship.
A closely-related example would be responding to rudeness and name-calling with wisdom and kindness.
7. Protect
Protecting someone from cyberbullying or protecting account info with secure passwords changed regularly or protecting a website by letting someone at the site know there’s a technical vulnerability.
8. Clarify
Clarify someone else’s point, data, or position on an issue before attempting to counterpoint during an online debate.
9. Help
Whenever possible–whether on a Wiki, social media platform, website comments section, or somewhere else–helping people who need it is good citizenship anywhere, online or off.
10. Assume the best
In discussions and other digital-only interactions, assuming the best in other people can be good digital citizenship provided that you’re protecting yourself and mitigating any risk or damage to you or the community.
11. Consider
Related to critical thinking, considering ideas from other perspectives is crucial to empathy–which itself is crucial to digital citizenship.
12. Report
If something needs reported–dangerous behavior, bullying, suicide threats, violence, etc.–find out who they ‘authorities’ are in that context and reporting it is good digital citizenship.
13. Share
Sharing your specific talent, passion, or expertise in a way that inspires others.
Sharing content on social media you find valuable and would like to see more of.
14. Thank
Thanking content creators, tech support, forum moderators, etc., for their efforts and contributions in/on the platforms and communities you depend on and enjoy.
14. Attribute
Properly using the Creative Commons attribution framework is an example of digital citizenship.
15. Update
While not all updates are ‘good,’ not updating operating systems, apps, firmware on hardware, and other software can reduce the stability of security of the technology you depend on. Updating intelligently is an example of being a ‘good digital citizen.’
16. Verify
Resisting social media-based ‘attacks’ based on events you lack specific expertise or first-hand knowledge on/about.
17. Secure
While updating technology is a part of security, so is changing passwords, maintaining possession and control of your mobile devices, using secure websites [https, for example], not saving passwords on public computers, only using safe WiFi connections–and on and on and on. These are all examples of digital citizenship.
18. Read carefully
A very general–and under-practiced–form of digital citizenship? Reading with comprehension.
Similar to thinking critically, reading carefully and with comprehension on social media ensures you actually know what’s be
ing said before you respond to it. For example, read the whole article if you’re going to comment on it. Read the terms and conditions before you accept them. Read [and fully grasp] the comment–and the entire comment thread, at times–if you’re going to participate in a social media-based ‘discussion.”
19. Double-check
Verifying anything you claim, publish, or share is true [e.g., not spreading misinformation or hearsay]–while also being sure to properly contextualize even ‘truths’–is an example of good digital citizenship.
20. Support
Supporting others by offering useful feedback, encouraging them, or sharing work they’re proud of, etc.