Parents as Online Supervisors/Teachers

I saw this on a person’s comment thread, “When I think of digital responsibilities, I think of social skills. Growing up we are taught how to behave in various social settings. Weddings, funerals, birthday parties, family gatherings, and so on. I believe digital the digital world has the same complex “social” settings. The responsibility not only rests on those using or accessing the digital world but it also falls upon those who provide access. Parents should be supervising and teaching their children on proper use. Just as they would when they all go to Aunt Harriet’s birthday party.” . . . unless those in a supervisory position are tech literate, they’re not going to be able to appropriately teach and supervise their children's digital access.  So, I agree with this post that online etiquette needs to be taught and directed, but we older adults and parents need to learn to use it first, to be able to understand the ramifications our children and students can run into and what they're accessing!

Yeah! Parents are the primary teachers here. It seems that "the internet" has a life of its own. What does "it" want and what will "it" allow? How does "it" resist restraint.

I agree that we as educators and parents need to teach our children digital skills and what is appropriate behavior. When people think they can be anonymous, it takes good character to do the right thing when "no one is watching." As children become part of the digital world, they should be monitored closely at first to guide them as to what is alright to say and what is not.