Family and Homeschool Activities for Teaching Digital Etiquette

These family and homeschool activities are designed to complement the Digital Etiquette topic on BrainPOP Jr.

Pause for Thought Practice

Remind your child that we can sometimes speak (or type!) too quickly when we are angry or upset.  

Play a game called Pause for Thought. You go first by remembering a situation where your feelings were hurt by someone. How did you handle it? If you didn’t pause and think before reacting, describe how the outcome may have been different if you had? Now prompt your child to remember a situation where they felt hurt, describe their first response, and how it would be different if they paused before reacting. Ask, why should we always think before we press “send”?

Remind your child that a digital footprint is the information a person leaves behind or shares about themselves online, and that online information is there forever! Learning how to pause and think before responding is an important part of digital etiquette and will help your child avoid stressful online situations. 

When Isn’t It Nice to Share? 

Write down four examples of potential online content on small pieces of paper. Examples can include your new cell phone number, a painting a friend made of your dog, a picture of a home-made birthday cake, and a comment criticizing a friend’s new haircut. 

Ask your child which is okay to share online, and why. Which posts need someone’s permission first? Which might hurt someone’s feelings or reveal an unsafe amount of personal information? 

Remind your child that websites have made it as easy as possible to share something with just one click—but once something is shared, it can’t truly be unshared! Even if something is deleted, people can take screenshots and save or repost the information. Sharing someone else’s artwork without permission is not thoughtful, and sharing negative feelings about someone’s appearance is always inappropriate. 

Finally, remind your child that empathy is understanding the feelings of another person. Before sharing information online, all we need to do is ask ourselves, “Is this nice to share?”