This post was written in partnership with Google for Education and Forward Influence Network. All opinions are my own.
#ItsCoolToBeKind
October is National Bullying Prevention Month. Throughout the month of October, Be Internet Awesome will sprinkle positive messages to show that the “golden rule” is just as important online as it is in real life with the #ItsCoolToBeKind Challenge. The internet can be a truly great place to learn when comments, conversations, and content are positive.
Unfortunately, not everyone is kind online. Even people that are normally very kind people can find themselves being dismissive, rude, snarky or mean behind a computer screen! The dark side of the internet, cyberbullying and trolling is very scary.
About Be Internet Awesome
Google created the free multi-faceted Be Internet Awesome program as a tool to teach kids the fundamentals of digital citizenship and safety so they can explore the online world with confidence.
The program is available in English and Spanish and consists of an ISTE standard aligned curriculum for teachers to use in the classroom, ready-made Pear Decks for each lesson, and an adventure-packed online game called Interland that focuses on digital safety and citizenship. I perused the website and I love all the informative and free resources that are available for educators and parents like myself!
Random Acts of Online Kindness
Let’s use the Internet for good and teach our kids how to use these tools in a positive way. Today, and every day, we each can do our own part to flood the Internet with kindness!
It’s cool to be kind: be a positive digital citizen by treating others how you’d like to be treated online, just as in real life. If you treat others kind online it will have an impact not just on the digital world but the offline world as well.
#ItsCoolToBeKind Challenge
I have some examples of Acts of Kindness you can perform online. These are just a few ways in which we can make the internet a kinder space. We want the kindness to spread to everyone!
Find somewhere (or someone) that could use kindness or positivity online.
I have included a Random Act of Kindness image that you can share to someone online with a positive comment attached, you can send it through a message, text, email, or post it to social media and tag someone in it!
We also printed this out and performed Random Acts of Kindness throughout the community as well. You can never spread too much kindness!
Post a positive comment about a friend’s picture or video.
Be an upstander and report negative behavior.
Send a positive message to a friend.
Help your kids spread kindness online with Kind Kingdom.
It’s Your Turn!
Now I’m encouraging you to take part in #ItsCoolToBeKind challenge and model the kind behavior to your kids!
Perform a random act of kindness online to someone else by yourself or with your kids! Then, challenge 3+ (fellow parents or families to do another act of kindness online within 48 hours. Be sure to tag the friends in your social shares.
Post about the act and encourage your audience to be kind online and participate in this challenge with inspiration from Be Internet Awesome!
Play Interland with your kids and put your kindness skills to the test at g.co/KindKingdom
Learn more about how to be kind online with Google’s Be Internet Awesome Family Guide at g.co/BeInternetAwesome.
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Great post. Thanks for sharing!