Easy Ways to Teach Your Tween to be Kind Online

This post is sponsored by Google, a great resource to teach kids to be kind online. I was compensated to talk about online safety on my blog as part of an influencer campaign with Forward Influence Network. All content is my own.

As our kids grow older they start to gain more access to electronic devices and the internet.

Since we live in an age where practically everything is online it’s important to teach our kids online responsibility.

Making sure our kids are kind in their interactions at home and online is so important. Starting a good foundation of knowledge will help them know how to be kind online. A skill that will carry with them through high school and into adulthood.

What resources are available to parents to teach kids online kindness?

Right now Google has an amazing free resource for parents to help kids stay safe online. 

Be Internet Awesome is there new program, which includes a full curriculum for teachers and parents to teach their kids how to be safe and spread kindness online.

Their curriculum is really great with detailed activities and important topics that you can cover with your kids at home.

Learn all about the Be Internet Awesome Campaign and let your kids’ teachers know all about it, so they can introduce it in the classroom!

After completing the curriculum you can test your kids knowledge on Google’s free game Interland. Interland is a really cute game that guides kids through different aspects of online safety. The game puts them into real life situations they might encounter online and helps them figure out how to handle those situations.

We went through the curriculum and played Interland in our home and it was such a great bonding experience. My 10 year old really learned a lot about internet safety and I even learned a few things I didn’t know. 

Check out your kid’s kindness skills on Interland. Talk to them about their results and takeaways they’ve learned by playing through Interland.

How can you teach online kindness?

When it comes to teaching your kids kindness online parents are the best models.

We need to make sure that our kids have the tools they need to spread kindness through the internet, instead of becoming another internet bully.

Our kids will end up online at one point or another. Either at school, home, or on their devices while waiting for mom to buckle the little kids into their car seats. You get it, there are infinite opportunities to be kind or not so kind on the internet.

Even though we may think our kids will never go there, being an internet bully is an easy trap to fall into. That’s because it’s easy to say mean and hurtful things to people that we aren’t talking to face-to-face.

Here are some tips to teach your kids to always spread kindness online-

• Real people live online– When you are online it is real life. You are talking to real people living on the other end of the screen. It can be easy to forget this and slip into bad habits, like being a bully. Have a conversation with your kids about talking to people online like they would talk to them in real life.
• Words Matter– The things you say to people have an impact. It’s the same online as it is in person. Make sure your kids are spreading kindness and know that if they use positive words with people while on the internet they will be making people feel good. Lifting them up instead of pushing them down.
• Report unkind behavior– Let your kids know it’s okay to tell an adult about unkind behavior they experience online. If there is online bullying or someone that is making them feel uncomfortable online it is important that someone knows to prevent it from happening to someone else or from something worse happening.
• Set Rules– Make sure your kids have a set of online rules to follow. Set clear consequences for them about what could happen if they aren’t being kind on the internet. Not only will they have a consequence at home, but they will also have the consequence of knowing that they made somebody else feel badly.
• Family Meetings- Have an open door policy with your kids when it comes to online activity. Hold a family meeting where you talk with your kids about being kind online. Talk about what being positive means to you and the different ways you can spread positivity at home, in public, and online.

How are you teaching your kids to spread kindness online? Did you go through Google’s Be Internet Awesome program in your home? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!