Boots Bows & Beaches

Promise her anything but give her the beach, big bows & nice boots!

#ItsCoolToBeKind Online

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.

#ItsCoolToBeKind

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.

#ItsCoolToBeKind

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!

#ItsCoolToBeKind

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!

#ItsCoolToBeKind

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

#ItsCoolToBeKind#ItsCoolToBeKind

Learn more about how to be kind online with Google’s Be Internet Awesome Family Guide at g.co/BeInternetAwesome.

Pin For Later >>>

Together For A Better Internet | Safer Internet Day

This is a sponsored post in partnership with Forward Influence.

Together For A Better Internet

Raising children is so fun, brings me so much joy, and yes, the occasional headache. The older my daughters get, the more frightening and dangerous the world becomes.

It is 2019, my 11 year old daughter is walking around middle school with a phone in her pocket that allows her to connect to the internet at anytime. Although, I hope she isn’t doing this because she is in school but the fact of the matter is that the internet is so accessible to her at anytime. Most kids get a smartphone by the time they are 10 years old, and more than 77 percent of kids 6-12 years old are using them on a weekly basis.

While we all want to trust our children to be kind and responsible in person and on the Internet, sadly we cannot trust everyone else who is online to do the same, and you should not, either.

Safer Internet Day

 

Safer Internet Day is a unique opportunity to raise awareness of the challenges and opportunities young people face in the online world. From cyberbullying to social networking, Safer Internet Day aims to raise awareness of emerging online issues and chooses a topic reflecting current concerns.

The campaign’s slogan, “Together for a better internet“, is a call to action for all stakeholders to join together and play their part in creating a better internet for everyone, and especially for younger users.

Help your family create healthy digital habits

Whether your children are younger or in their teens, the Family Link app lets you set digital rules to help guide them as they learn, play and explore online.

Let’s be honest we are all busy parents who could use a little help monitoring our kids’ internet habits. Family Link is helpful and powerful without being overly intrusive. It gives us as parents an opportunity to explain why it’s important to limit our children’s time online and how to keep them safe doing it.

Be Internet Awesome

To make the most of the Internet, kids need to be prepared to make smart decisions. Be Internet Awesome teaches kids the fundamentals of digital citizenship and safety so they can explore the online world with confidence.

Whether they’re playing Interland, an online adventure that puts the key lessons of digital safety into hands-on practice with four challenging games, or using the internet for schoolwork, Be Internet Awesome aims to help kids be thoughtful about what they share, identify phishing and other scams, protect their personal information, and be respectful of their peers.

Have a conversation with your kids about how to be safe and smart online on Safer Internet Day and everyday by using the information from Be Internet Awesome. It is time to Come Together for a Better Internet with your family by using Be Internet Awesome starting with Family Link.

Pin for later >>>

FOLLOW

@bootsbowsandbeaches