Digital Citizenship & Student User Agreements

Digital citizenship is not about how much someone knows about technology and the internet. Digital citizenship is more about how people use the tools and platforms provided by them. It is what we do with these amazing and sometimes mind boggling technologies that counts – as digital citizens we must at all times treat others and ourselves with respect but all too often this does not happen. Often our words, actions and behaviours online can be misunderstood and we run the risk of victimising ourselves and others.

Adults need to guide and help our young people navigate through the ‘digital minefield’. It’s important that conversations around technology are led by adults but owned and influenced by our young people. By and large they are the technology experts, however as they grow and mature into responsible adults they also need to learn about moderation, delayed gratification and how to be responsible citizens online – in essence they need and desire boundaries. It’s our big responsibility as adults to give these to the teenagers/young adults we bring up and interact with.