This morning I had the opportunity to be on KARE11 News as part of a story Helping Kids Make Good Digital Decisions. The story featured four interviews with Boua Xiong from KARE 11, Minnetonka Public Schools parents and their children, and me. We discussed a wide range of topics including what age is appropriate to get a cellphone, filtering and monitoring tools available, social media, and digital footprints. I am so thankful for the opportunity to share tips and resources with so many people. I was on hand in the studio to do a live Facebook chat for people commenting on the story and asking questions. The reach of a televised new story is quite amazing to me. By 7:30am, over 24,000 people had viewed the story on Facebook. Fortunately not all of them had questions!
During one of the four video segments, Cade, a fifth grade student, mentions how students in Minnetonka learn to T.H.I.N.K. before they digitize. He brought it up on his own during the interview and recited the whole acronym from memory. It was great and is evidence that the work the media specialists and teachers are doing to educate our students is really sticking!
Digital Citizenship starts with education, but it shouldn't end there. Technology provides us with a means to limit the exposure to inappropriate material that reaches our kids' screens. I also talked about the Curbi filtering app (more detail in a previous post) and shared my list of resources with viewers and the online audience.
This weekend 500+ people signed my online petition to Urge Cellular Carriers to Provide Parents with Content Filters on 4G LTE. I hope to continue the momentum around this issue and get the attention of Verizon and other carriers. Please join me in encouraging the development of tools to protect children.
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