Today's younger generations are more exposed to technology than previous generations. As digital media, social media, and Internet-related tools are routinely widespread, many of the digital media continue to gain popularity and youth-related issues are emerging. Parents and teachers are voicing the urgent need to exercise care and effort so that children do not use technology in a negative way.
Digital Literacy
Social media is a place where people communicate with each other and express their thoughts and opinions. However, cyberbullying and fraud were also made to occur. As children are increasingly exposed to this environment, their behavior can be affected. Indeed, one study found that four out of ten children's experiences were related to cyberbullying, and 74 percent of children with social media accounts experienced unpleasant situations.
This problem, however, is still unknown to parents. In fact, most parents think that the Internet they use on a daily basis is a safe and harmless environment for their children.
In fact, digital literacy, literacy and literacy must be able to be taught to children. It means that children should be able to search and use the Internet in a beneficial way, or be equipped with the ability to produce information. It also needs to be aware of the limitations of technology and the dangers it brings to human life, and a deeper understanding of the surrounding technology.
The Importance of Digital Literacy
It is especially important to learn about the value of digital literacy from a young age. Because children are responsible for using the Internet as a responsible and understandable. For example, you need to be aware of the basic skills of using search engines, writing documents and sending emails, and the impact on everyday life of using technology in a positive or negative way. The reasons why children should have digital literacy are as follows.
1. Leaving the right digital footprint: A digital footprint is a diverse set of digital footage left on the Web using the Internet, which means that everyone can see everything they post and share online. For a positive online reputation, it's a good idea to learn how to properly express your feelings and post the right post.
2. The Essence of Curated Content: Curriculum of proper content and learn how to manage it. No matter what the children post and share, the curated content is a tool to let people know about themselves. You should also be able to distinguish between qualitative and suspicious content.
3. Identifying the potential of technology: Technology has been developed with the aim of helping people's daily life. Parents, therefore, should be taught how to use technology in ways that can benefit children in school and in everyday life.
Media skills that kids lack
Most children have a great deal of knowledge about using specific devices, but they have limited understanding of all that these tools provide. In fact, for kids who spend an average of nine hours each day using only electronic devices, online activities that are mostly posted online and shared online can make them less responsible.
Be aware of the responsibility of social media users to be at risk and be able to teach parents well about the impact of media. Some of the risks associated with lack of media literacy are:
1. Complaints about Body Image: Today, children are perceiving the wrong concept of ideal body shape through the media. Therefore, they are conscious of their body image, grow up, become negative about themselves, and become difficult to adapt to society.
2. Stereotypes: Social media has also become a channel for raising stereotypes about religion, gender, and race. Children can accept such discrimination as facts and have bad stereotypes.
Your child's digital literacy education
It is now essential to have a digital literacy education for the children to depend on for a lifetime. Parents need to be aware of how to talk about technology and use it responsibly, because kids with basic media literacy can use the Internet more positively. Here are some ways parents can teach your child.
1. Encourage critical thinking: Explain that all information you see online is not true, and you should be able to ask questions about the information that children see online.
2. Monitoring your child's internet use: Parents should be able to monitor the social media, sites, apps, etc. they are using to see what role they are playing and affect while they are using it.
