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Afterthought: Social norming & digital citizenship

November 17, 2009 By Anne 2 Comments

This is an addendum to my earlier post on digital citizenship. Would appreciate any/all feedback.

About a year ago I heard a great story on NPR about a successful risk-prevention program at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville that “relies on peer counseling, social events and solid information to challenge misperceptions students have about drinking” instead of the less successful rules-and-enforcement programs at most colleges and universities. I thought, “Yes! That’s what online-safety education needs!” We’d been working on the “solid information” part for years (often hobbled by misrepresentation of the research in order to scare the public). But more emphasis needed to be on the social and peer-counseling part of this risk-prevention discussion, I thought.

That’s where digital citizenship comes in. Peer mentoring, social norming, being there for friends engaged in self-destructive behavior, being the sort of bystander who helps end bullying situations demonstrate the “Internet safety” of the participatory Web. Community – a sense of belonging – further reinforces that peer support. Belonging to, conscious citizenship in, a community is protective. I think that kind of peer support might be more automatic or reflexive in communities of strong shared interest like a World of Warcraft guild, a writers group, or fandom, but if the public discussion about Net safety encourages “users” to view themselves as “citizens” or stakeholders in their communities’ well-being, we may see more of this in the huge, more general “spaces” like Facebook and MySpace too. After all, these sites aggregate smaller affinity communities, and Facebook is just a giant collection of its members’ social networks, each its own mini community.

So maybe – if we all really focus our messaging and education on this protective, empowering approach, on citizenship – “Internet safety” will be largely preventive (of course with intervention for youth engaging in risk), meaningful to young people, a support rather than a barrier to 21st-century teaching and learning in their schools, and part of the solution to eating-disorder, self-harm, and other self-destructive community online.

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Filed Under: Literacy & Citizenship, Risk & Safety, social norms, Youth

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Comments

  1. Shaping Youth says

    November 18, 2009 at 1:17 am

    Anne, that's not an 'afterthought' it's a forethought! ;-)

    Clearly a core component in the media literacy realm taking a macro vs. micro view to empower peer to peer respectfulness on a global scale…Def. what we've all been yakking about at Kids Online /Balancing Safety & Fun, n'est ce pas? You're tops! :-)

    p.s. Still wanna do that interview w/you on Ofcom, FOSI, etc. or crosspost some of your fab write-ups on same. Meanwhile, I'll have the eModeration multi-parter up on Shaping Youth later this week…

    Reply

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  1. Digital citizenship the ‘killer app’: How | NetFamilyNews.org says:
    November 21, 2010 at 5:11 pm

    […] “Social norming & digital citizenship” […]

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IMPORTANT RESOURCES

Our (DIGITAL) PARENTING BASICS: Safety + Social
NAMLE, the National Association for Media Literacy Education
CASEL.org & the 5 core social-emotional competencies of SEL
Center for Democracy & Technology
Center for Innovative Public Health Research
Childnet International
Committee for Children
Congressional Internet Caucus Academy
ConnectSafely.org
Control Shift: a pivotal book for Internet safety
Crimes Against Children Research Center
Crisis Textline
Cyber Civil Rights Initiative's Revenge Porn Crisis Line
Cyberwise.org
danah boyd's blog and book about networked youth
Disconnected, Carrie James's book on digital ethics
FOSI.org's Good Digital Parenting
The research of Global Kids Online
The Good Project at Harvard's School of Education
If you watch nothing else: "Parenting in a Digital Age" TED Talk by Prof. Sonia Livingstone
The International Bullying Prevention Association
Let Grow Foundation
Making Caring Common
Raising Digital Natives, author Devorah Heitner's site
Renee Hobbs at the Media Education Lab
MediaSmarts.ca
The New Media Literacies
Report of the Aspen Task Force on Learning & the Internet and our guide to Creating Trusted Learning Environments
The Ruler Approach to social-emotional learning (Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence)
Sources of Strength
"Young & Online: Perspectives on life in a digital age" from young people in 26 countries (via UNICEF)
"Youth Safety on a Living Internet": 2010 report of the Online Safety & Technology Working Group (and my post about it)

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