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By Janine

5 Clearcut Steps to Help Spread Kindness Online with Your Kids

Filed Under: BLOG, parenting, Sponsored Posts, Technology Tagged With: #BeInternetAwesome, #ItsCoolToBeKind, Cyber Bullying, Forward Influence, Interland Games, Sponsored, Spreading Kindness Online, Teaching Kindness to Kids

*This post about how to spread kindness online was written for Forward Influence for their #BeInternetAwesome Blog Series. However, all opinions are solely my own. #ItsCoolToBeKind #Sponsored

I am a part of the so-called Generation X. My generation grew up before the internet and mobile devices were readily available.

However, bullying existed. Back then, It was mainly in the form of peer pressure bullying. This peer bullying occurred more or less in real time. It was done mostly to your face or behind your back verbally. Trust me I know first hand as I not only was bullied by a classmate as a young kid, but I also witnessed bullying to others even after that happened to me.

Christmas Tree Decorating 80s Style

Being bullied was not a fun experience by any means. But it taught me to stand up for myself. Plus, it also helped me to stand up for other peers when I saw it happening to them after experiencing it firsthand myself.

Present Day Bullying

Kids nowadays still have to deal with bullying. But this current generation has added a new layer to bullying with it also taking place in a virtual environment. That is right technology has become a new and current avenue for bullying to occur. This type of bullying is known as cyberbullying. Why? Because it occurs virtually through the use of technology through cyberspace.

See the Internet can be a powerful tool for communicating something good or something bad, such as bullying. It is here that kindness or cruelty can spread quickly and easily.

Betty_Crocker_Bars_iPad_Remote

My own kids are school aged now. They use iPads and other mobile devices pretty much daily for either school work or socializing with friends. So, I can’t help but have a personal concern with cyberbullying for my own children. Thankfully, my kids have been spared from this so far. But I know it is something that can indeed happen to them in this day and age.

1st Day Back Photo of Girls Together

Because of this current trend, I am wondering how we can help today’s youth combat cyberbullying and spread kindness online.

Family is key + 4 other ways to help spread kindness online now with @GoogleforEdu #BeInternetAwesome #ItsCoolToBeKind #Sponsored Click to Tweet

So I have found some useful ways and steps to indeed help my own kids learn about cyberbullying, as well as spreading kindness online. Therefore, I am sharing what has worked for us with spreading kindness online below in recent times here.

5 Clearcut Steps to Help Spread Kindness Online with Kids

5 Clear Cut Steps to Help Spread Kindness Online with Your Kids

1. Family Is Key

For one thing, families are powerful in helping their kids with this. The first step was to be clear on what kinds of actions and behavior toward others are important to our family—how we treat other people “in our family.”

Apple Picking Fall 2017 Family

2. Others Matter, Too

So as parents, we also need to teach them to take the high road by applying the concept of “treat others as you’d want to be treated,” helping their friends, and disempowering drama and cyberbullying. I also recently shared with my girls my own personal experience with bullying when I younger in relation to our discussion with peer and cyberbullying.

3. Technology Also Plays A Hand

The next step was to think about what that looks like in digital forms: texts, posts, comments, photos, videos, etc.

4. Play the Game

This is where Interland games came into play. Because see this interactive game from Google was able to be played together as a family unit. This game is fun, but also educational. See it taught my kids all about the 5 areas of internet awesome.

Google Interland Game Teaching Kinds About Spreading Kindness Online

These are the five areas we found as follows:

  • SMART: Where we learn to share with care
  • ALERT: Where we learn not to fall for fake
  • STRONG: Where we learn how to secure Our digital stuff
  • KIND: Where we learn that itʼs cool to be kind
  • BRAVE: Where we learn that when in doubt, we talk it out

Mindful Mountain

With this game, we also found great talking points to use for our family discussions, as well as activities that helped lay out a strong foundation for our kids’ safe, successful use of the Internet.

Tower of Treasure

See there is no safety “tool” more important than open-hearted, open-minded communication in families.

Reality River

First, everybody learned about more about each other, as well as technology and media. Plus, it also helped my kids develop some much needed digital and social skills making learning also better at school for them.

Scam example question

Here are so simple conversation starters the game helped our family get started with below:

  • Define the word positive and what it means.
  • Share explains of positivity in real life, as well as online.
  • Discuss scenarios that are better dealt with personally than online in a text or post.
  • Learn what is a bully is, the target of a bully is, witnesses/bystanders, as well as upstanders (those who help to intervene positively).
  • Move over the game taught my kids what to do if they do get bullied or if they are a bystander to bullying how to become an upstander.

Epic Win Reality River

5. After the game.

My own girls put what they learned into practice not only with our family but also with their friends in person, as well as online.

Certificate for Reality River

There you have it some simple, but clearcut ways to help your own kids spread kindness online.

Do your kids use mobile devices?

Have you discussed kindness online with your kids?

Now, share with us in the comments.

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About Janine

Janine is a published author of the books, The Mother of All Meltdowns and Only Trollops Shave Above the Knee. She has been featured on The Huffington Post, Mamapedia, Today Parenting Team and SheKnows. She also runs her own graphic design company at J9 Designs.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dara says

    October 31, 2018 at 8:17 am

    I worry about cyber bullying too and I know my own bullying would have been worse had we had internet access back then!

    • Janine says

      October 31, 2018 at 8:35 am

      I know exactly what you mean, Dara and trust me so much worrying here. This really has helped ease some of it though for us.

  2. Tamara says

    October 31, 2018 at 8:44 am

    With four siblings, I swear I have seen it all. Even with bullying within our family, we saw it in the greater world. I think it’s like.. you can mess with your siblings.. but if someone else do? NOT cool. Anyway, the world today with the cyber-bullying is something I never could have imagined. My kids don’t do anything on the Internet, but they will. Oh.. they will.

    • Janine says

      October 31, 2018 at 9:01 am

      I know it is funny with families, but I agree that you can act one way to your family member. But let someone else do it to them, definitely not cool. And trust me your kids will be online before you know it, as this is just the world we live in now.

  3. Meredith R Spidel says

    October 31, 2018 at 9:31 am

    This is such an important conversation for all of us parents to have! Thank you for offering such wisdom here, Janine!

    • Janine says

      October 31, 2018 at 9:32 am

      I couldn’t agree more with you, Meredith and truly happy to share some much-needed wisdom here on this very important issue for our kids.

  4. William Holland says

    October 31, 2018 at 9:42 am

    I love the spirit and message of this post, Janine. I swear, bullying has been around seemingly forever, and it doesn’t seem to get better over the years. I guess all we can do is our part and hope other parents do the same.

    Happy Halloween, my friend!

    • Janine says

      October 31, 2018 at 9:46 am

      All I can say is thank you, Bill, for your wise words and agree as parents we all have to do our part with our own kids on this. Happy Halloween, right back at you now!

  5. Jen says

    November 1, 2018 at 9:31 am

    Cute little Janine, how could someone bully you?! Love this post, and such great ideas. Family is key. I am going to look into this. Thanks friend!

    • Janine says

      November 1, 2018 at 1:55 pm

      Happy to share with you and yes even I have been on the receiving end of bullying in the past.

  6. Catherine Gacad says

    November 10, 2018 at 1:13 am

    I’m definitely trying to teach and live out ‘treat others the way you want to be treated.’

    My son’s 4 and after a playdate, he told his friend, “I didn’t have fun.” I totally lost it!

    In the car, I said, “That’s not how we speak to friends who invite us over. How would you like it if someone said that to you?”

    Lord help me!

    • Janine says

      November 10, 2018 at 8:34 am

      Catherine, I truly couldn’t agree with you more and sounds like you are doing a great job so far with your son. Seriously, it is moments like these that test our parenting skills. But you most certainly rose to the challenge!

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