Digital resilience โ like the internet itself โ is a built on connection. Developing childrenโs digital resilience must be a collective response. This requires having the evidence to know what actually works, the will to design better services, the understanding to apply regulation appropriately, and the capacity to provide relevant and accessible support.
The framework defines digital resilience and is designed to provide a simple process for organisations to assess for themselves whether different types of environments, content, online services and policies support, or hinder, digital resilience.
This has me rethinking the idea of digital mindfulness and Ian O’Byrne’s point that it is a collective action.
Resilience and recovery are not the responsibility of an individual, they are the result of collective action.
The Digital Professionalism webinar run by Matt Woodley discussed the challenges of staying professional in online environments, with a focus on the VIT Code of Ethics. This is something that has become even more pertinent with the move to online learning. What was useful was the opportunities to stop and reflect with others. Every context is different, but the questions about appropriate practice and safety online remain the same.
โPlaying IT Safeโ is a new resource to help pre-school children better understand the workings of the digital world. It also gives parents a way to structure the conversations they need to have around cyber safety.
We also examine a pilot program for teenagers called Digital Compass. Itโs been co-designed with Australian school students to help them as they navigate the challenges and ambiguities of our digital evolution.
Guests
Professor Susan Edwards โ Research Director, Early Childhood Futures, Australian Catholic University
Daniel Donahoo โ Senior Advisor, Innovation and Development, Alannah & Madeline Foundation
Professor Susan Danby โ Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, Queensland University of Technology
Sheridan Hartley โ Program Director, Behavioural Insight Team
In this episode of RN Future Tense, Antony Funnell dives into a range of initiatives currently being developed by the Alannah and Madeline Foundation to help children make better use of the digital world.
The first program is Playing It Safe. Dan Donahoo explains how the online portal was developed to help parents and care-givers to start the conversation about digital technologies and online safety at an early age. This was designed in response to Early Childhood Australia’s Statement on young children and digital technologies.
The ECA Statement on young children and digital technologies was developed in response to an identified need for guidance for early childhood professionals on the role and optimal use of digital technologies with, by and for young children in early childhood education and care settings. This need has grown as children are increasingly growing up in digital contexts.
The intent of Playing It Safe is to explore the key concepts of relationships, well-being, citizenship and play and learning at their age of development. One of the activities within Playing It Safe is the creation of an explicit family technology plan.
The second program is Digital Compass. It is an application that has been designed to help teens to identify what they can do, rather than what they can’t do. It has been designed to be platform agnostic and focuses on building ethical prosocial activities.
Coming at the problem from the perspective of research, Susan Edward and Susan Danby talk about longitudinal studies they are a part of to take the conversation beyond discussions ‘screentime‘ and ‘digital natives‘ and capture a deeper appreciation of digital literacies within family life.
These types of statistics need desperately to become more nuanced. Online most of who we engage with are strangers and it isnโt dangerous. The assumption that all contact with strangers online is dangerous for 8-17yo flies in the face of the reality of a connected world https://t.co/2uO4RCfVcH
A central challenge in addressing the sexual victimization of children is that the public is not comfortable facing the harrowing reality that strangers are unlikely perpetrators. Most acts of sexual violence against children occur in their own homes by people that those children trust.Page 110