Digital Citizenship

TikTok, the video sharing app, takes a lot of heat for falsehoods and propaganda that often shows up in user-created content. To help rehabilitate its image, TikTok has partnered with the National Association for Media Literacy Education to launch a "Be Informed" campaign that features top influencers in humorous infomercial-style videos educating users about how to identify misinformation. The five videos cover topics including "Fact vs. Opinion," "Question the Source" and "When to Share vs. When to Report."

Technology can help support students' digital-leadership skills -- not just digital citizenship -- according to Andy Plemmons, media specialist at an elementary school in Georgia. He defines a digital leader as someone who:

• Uses social media to share ideas and empower others
• Connects and collaborates with others to learn together
• Is not afraid to show their work and share their creative outlets for the greater good
• Is willing to share their thoughts with an open mind and respect for others

Plemmons contends that many children have been taught what to not do, rather than proactively using the Internet in a way that’s effective and meaningful.

Here is another vocabulary term you need to add to your lexicon – deepfakes. Deepfakes are images and audio pulled from social media accounts to create convincing videos – sometimes of people who never existed - for extortion, misinformation and disinformation. Deepfake technology enables anyone with a computer and an Internet connection to create realistic-looking photos and videos of people saying and doing things that they did not actually say or do. Cybercriminals are increasingly interested in the potential use of deepfake videos to pressure people into paying ransom or divulging sensitive information or to spread misinformation, Trend Micro reports, making the vetting of any information online or in media even more important.

Tech companies have been creating apps and devices for tracking employee wellness and promoting customer safety as restaurants and other businesses start to reopen, but experts caution that they could give employees and customers a false sense of security and possibly do more harm than good. "Some companies are embarking upon things that are not going to help and may actually set us back," said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. Tools that the technology relies on, such as antibody test results and infrared thermometers, can be inaccurate, leading to a false sense of security.

Facebook is combating hate speech and misinformation by developing natural language processing models and a database of meme examples for training artificial intelligence moderators. The company, together with DrivenData, will also launch the Hateful Meme Challenge, which will award $100,000 to researchers who develop AI models that can detect hate speech in memes.

During the shift to remote instruction, many educators are using online proctoring services to monitor students for signs of cheating while they take traditional closed-book exams. Some students are speaking out against these services, objecting to everything from the design of the software to remarking that the whole process is a huge distraction to test taking. The University of California Berkeley has already banned online exam proctoring, with some students saying they may not have the high-speed Internet connection or living situation to make remote exams happen effectively and equitably. Of course, other students are finding ways around these safeguards, using tips and tricks they find online, such as hiding notes underneath the view of the camera or setting up a secret laptop. But as two can play at that game, so remote proctoring services are constantly coming up with countermeasures. On its website, one online proctoring service even has a job listing for a “professional cheater” to test its system. 

Your kids are probably spending more time online then ever before, so now is a better time than ever to work on digital safety. Think about things such as navigating digital information, vetting sources and fact checking, to name a few. Check out this set of 10 short videos on YouTube from Crash Course. The videos, ranging in length from 5 to 13 minutes, cover fact checking, lateral reading, vetting sources, the pros and cons of using Wikipedia as a source, evaluating photos and videos and data and infographics, and even how not to be drawn in by click bait. Brain Pop also has an excellent Media Literacy video for older kids on how to be a savvy consumer of mass media, including topics such as how to evaluate advertising, news stories, opinion pieces and other hidden persuasions. For a quick read on the subject, try 5 Essential Media Literacy Questions for Kids .

At first glance, this infographic from Social Media Today with statistics about online product reviews may not seem relevant to a discussion about cyberbullying, however one statistic stands out. The research indicates that it takes 40 positive reviews to undo damage done by just one negative review. That same kind of disproportional damage can be inflicted with bullying comments online. This kind of evidence can give your discussion with your kids of how to steer clear of cyberbullying a bit of real world perspective.

When it comes to technology use at school, the “Acceptable Use Policy” is something that you probably don’t even think about except at the beginning of the school year when it is required for you and your child to sign. With luck, that is the last you ever see of it, unless your child is cited for a violation of the policy. To avoid this from happening, it is important your child clearly understands the expectations. While schools and administrators need to clearly communicate technology policies with students and parents, an article in the District Administration magazine online points out that acceptable use policies often can come across as intimidating instead of helpful. The author recommends that schools need to focus the policies on opportunity rather than just punishment, and that parents need to read these policies and work with schools to make sure everyone is on the same page in helping students safely learn how to navigate the online world.

YouTube has announced criteria for how it will allocate $100 million to producers of children's content, an initiative it announced in September. The programming targeted to ages 3-8 is meant to “drive outcomes associated with the following character strengths: courage, compassion, communication, gratitude, curiosity, humility, teamwork, integrity, perseverance, self-control, empathy and creativity”, and can be live-action or animated. The announcement was made following YouTube getting slapped with a record US$170-million settlement from the US Federal Trade Commission and the New York Attorney General for allegedly collecting personal information from children without parental consent.