Digital Citizenship : Start

Digital Citizenship principles should lie as the backbone to all your use of digital technology at our school and beyond. Developing your understandings of the nature of communication on the internet, your digital footprint and your shared responsibilities play an important part in being a digital citizen in a globally connected digital world. 

A Digital Citizen follows the six tenets of citizenship; 

1. Respect yourself
2. Protect yourself
3. Respect others
4. Protect others
5. Respect intellectual property
6. Protect intellectual property
    

Other facets of digital citizenry to think about:

• Environment - Is your use of digital technology for this task environmentally sound? Can you use digital technology to cut down on waste?
• Ethics: Have you applied sound ethics into this task? Will you harm others? Have you researched to ensure you not passed on untruths?
• Safety: Do you know how use of technology in a manner that will protect you and others from danger, cyberbullying and defamation?
• Financial Security: Do you know how to use digital technology responsibly to protect you and others from scams?
• Global Social Justice: Does your use of digital technology as a consumer and a creator make society a better place?
• Leadership: Do you show leadership in your decisions in the use digital technology or are you just blindly following others without any analysis?
• Accountability: When you publish something using digital technology do you make sure that you can be contacted with comments and complaints?
• Personal Honesty: Do you make sure that your use of technology doesn't go against your personal beliefs and is always within the law?

Sources
Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship as developed by Mike Ribble and Gerard Bailey, as pictured with the nine--elementary planets.

Content created by Ms L. Millar

An award-winning video from ACMA (18 mins.) on use of social media for teens.

Sophie Herrington, Digital Campaign Manager atOptimising, an Internet and Website Marketing agency based in Melbourne has produced these Internet Safety Tips. .
 
The Internet is one of the most powerful and useful tools of our era, unfortunately it can also be unsafe at times. Here are some simple tips to increase your Internet awareness and safety, in order to keep your personal information private and make sure you have an enjoyable experience online.

• Use secure passwords: Try not to use an easy password like your birthday, postcode or middle name. Make sure you make a password which meets the following criteria:

o   Eight or more characters
o   Numbers AND letters
o   A special character (e.g $, &, @ )
o   Upper and lower case
o   No personal information
It is also important to avoid reusing passwords and to keep them in a safe place such as an external flash drive that you keep with you or a well-known online password manager.

•  Be aware of “Phishing”: This is when you are sent emails or come across sites that seem to be legitimate. They will usually ask you to pay for something by confirming a range of different personal information including: addresses, bank details, passwords, credit card details or birthdates. The most common targets for phishing scams are usually big banks, government organisations or Paypal/Ebay. Before adding or confirming any details, contact the company directly and make sure the email/site is real.
• Look up a business’ privacy policy before purchasing online: Have you ever received calls or emails from an unknown company after buying online? This happens when a company sells your information and buying history with others. Make sure you check their privacy policy prior to purchasing from them.
• Keep track of accounts after an online purchase: After using a credit card for online shopping be sure to keep an eye on any outgoings that may be suspicious. You should be purchasing online only from sites which have SSL (secure socket layer), you can identify these sites as they will have https:// instead of http:// in the URL and usually a padlock in either the URL or the status bar at the bottom of your browser.  
• Be aware of email attachments:  Avoid opening any attachments and links in emails from unknown senders; these may contain viruses or malware. Sometimes however your friend’s emails can get hacked and send out viruses; go with your gut, if it doesn’t seem like something a friend would send then do not open it.
• Be wary of free programs: Make sure you consider how legitimate a free software download is. It is best to avoid downloading programs unless it is from a reputable site.
• Update your virus software regularly: Choose a reputable brand and make sure you perform updates as they advise.
• Think before you share: On social media it is common to include and share lots of information on your profile. Make sure everything on your profile is appropriate as if ANYONE in the world could see it.    
• Look out for Fraud: Keep the mindset that anything that seems “too good to be true” online usually is. Use common sense and don’t click on any pop-ups or websites offering you money or free products. It is better to be safe than sorry.