Teaching our children how to navigate the online world is becoming increasingly crucial. But what are the best strategies to do this? How can we establish healthy boundaries and maintain healthy relationships with our children?
Even though it can sometimes feel like we are battling screens, there are social-emotional strategies we can use to support our children’s digital literacy that will set them up for success in the future.
Promote Critical Thinking
Supporting children’s curiosity and questioning benefits their digital reasoning skills by strengthening their thinking “muscles.” Evan Orticio suggests in Scientific American that when kids ask us questions, we can sometimes respond with, “Great question, what do you think? What makes you think that? How would we find out what’s right?” Experiencing the thought process behind these questions is a habit they need as they navigate online information.
Conversations with our families about instances where we had to change our perspective are also a helpful model. It is powerful to share that even adults are always learning and revising our understanding of a topic or issue with better information.
Discussing Misinformation
Misinformation, or false or inaccurate information, can prompt us to think harder about what is true and how we know. For example, I was recently working with a small group of second-graders, and we searched for data about rainforests online. Above the links to sites was an AI response. I explained to the students that AI response compiles information from various sources across the internet, but we should double check the answer with reliable sources.
After we found the information we were looking for from National Geographic, we looked back at the AI response and the students noticed something very important. It was answering a similar, but not the same, question, and if we hadn’t checked our information, we may have believed inaccurate information.
Older children (and adults) can benefit from lateral reading, one of the skills taught in Civic Online Reasoning that helps us cross-check information we find online. When our kids share something they’ve learned, it’s a helpful habit for us to ask them about the source of the information so that they’ll start asking themselves the same question.
Inappropriate Content
The internet can be an incredible resource of information, but not all of it is what we want our children to see. For instance, children are exposed to pornography at younger ages than most parents would guess. Discussing this with our children may feel awkward and scary, but these conversations are necessary. We want our children to come to us when they encounter uncomfortable experiences, and this is no exception.
Telling kids that we won’t be angry with them but instead want to support them can be an essential message, writes Perri Klass, M.D., for The New York Times. Encourage children to pay attention to how someone or something makes them feel because that can be an important guidepost to understanding what content may be inappropriate.
I overheard a teen turn off a TV show recently and say, “Yuck. I don’t like this. Let’s watch something else.” The assertiveness and ability to respond to their feelings will carry them through uncomfortable online and in-person events.
Pull Back the Curtain
We all deserve to know the motivations and who is behind what we consume online. Understanding that companies are making money from consumer discontent might motivate kids to engage more critically with online content, or even choose an offline activity instead.
For example, many social media posts knowingly or unknowingly popularize eating-disordered behaviors. Even if the content seems to be anti-eating disorder, the videos “paradoxically lead the users to emulate these “guilty” behaviors.” (Logrieco et al., 2021). It is important to understand that the underlying motive of that type of content may not be to provide accurate nutrition or health information, but to actually increase engagement and profit of the content for the creator’s personal gain.
Find opportunities to sit next to your child when one or both of you are online and point out when you see this type of content. Often, we mindlessly scroll through social media without considering how we’re feeling while watching the content. You may model that internal dialogue.
“I know this video seems healthy, but when I watched it, I just felt bad about myself and found myself feeling guilty about what I ate today. Even if this isn’t what the person intended, it’s not making me feel good. I’m going to unfollow them.”
Explaining how content creators and apps like Instagram or TikTok want to keep us engaged and how they far they will go to do so will help children develop an understanding of thinking deeply about how they spend their time. Do the companies they support (with time or money) represent their values?
Resources
Civic Online Reasoning curriculum, teaching people how to evaluate online information
CultureReframed parent courses to help young people navigate hypersexualized media
SafetyNet trainings in English and Spanish
Can You Believe It? By Joyce Grant, illustrated by Kathleen Marcotte
Killer Underwear Invasion! How to spot fake news, disinformation, and conspiracy theories by Elise Gravel
By Megan McQueen.
Spanish translation by Dr. J Senior Consulting, LLC
Megan McQueen is a warmhearted teacher, coach, consultant, and writer. She grounds her work in empathetic education, imparting a strong sense of community and social skills to those with which she works. Megan prioritizes emotional learning and problem solving skills. When not at work, she is most likely playing with her husband, two children, and pup.
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