Digital Families Project
The Digital Families Project: Fostering Online Respect
Welcome to the Digital Families Project—a Digital Citizens' initiative to engage and involve parents, influential family bloggers, Internet safety experts, educators, child and senior advocates, and responsible Internet companies in our efforts to make the Internet a safer place for users of all ages.
The main goal of the Digital Families Project is to foster a greater commitment to teaching and practicing online respect, including respect for others’ content, in our digital communities.
What is Content Respect?
We believe the Internet can and should be a free, open, and safe place where people can learn, play, and connect with each other. Truly free neighborhoods, however, require the proper protections to keep everyone safe as they share the benefits of the community.
As you know, there are a range of threats—from identity theft, cyberbullying, and misuse of content to online scams, malware, and online predators—that impact all Internet users, but especially target children and seniors. Most, if not all of these threats boil down to one thing: a lack of respect for each other and the content we create and share on the Internet.
Content respect is an easy concept to grasp. It simply means treating other people’s content with respect—meaning not stealing or plagiarizing someone else’s creative work and not misusing someone’s personal information or photography.
When it comes down to it, the Internet is no different than the “real world”; if you wouldn’t do something in the real world—like stealing a movie, plagiarizing someone else’s work, bullying a peer, or using someone’s personal information to impersonate them—then you shouldn’t do it online, either.
Get Social
If you haven’t already, be sure to like Digital Citizens on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to keep up with the latest on our Digital Families Project. Be sure to tweet your questions about Internet safety to @4SaferInternet — we’d love to hear from you!
From Our Blog
Check out some of the posts on our Cyber Safe World blog tackling the threats children and seniors face on the Internet, and what we can do to address them.
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Read MoreFederal law enforcement officials have disrupted “hundreds of fraudulent websites” that were exploiting fears about coronavirus, including maliciously posing as government agencies ...
Read MoreBeware of COVID-19 Scams:
DO NOT AUTOMATICALLY CLICK THAT LINK! In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, internet scams are increasing exponentially, with online crooks and con-artists seeking to lure unwary victims by posing ...
Read MoreIn the News
We aren’t alone in highlighting the dangers our families face online. Below are relevant news articles and blog posts covering the issues Parents and Partners are focused on.
- Sue Scheff, nationally recognized author and family Internet safety advocate, has a great website full of tips, articles, and other resources to learn more about online safety issues facing parents today.
- A Platform for Good - A project of the Family Online Safety Institute that seeks to empower parents to raise engaged kids and good digital citizens.
- Third Parent - An online resource for parents to address the challenges created by Internet and cell phone usage.
- Savvycyberkids.org - An online community dedicated to raising savvy cyber kids in our digital age.
- Identity Guard’s tips on protecting kids from identity theft and online predators.
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