Move over Itsy Bitsy Spider. Here鈥檚 a nursery rhyme for the 21st century: 鈥淪ometimes with technology, balancing鈥檚 hard to do. 鈥� Too much of something can make you sad or blue.鈥�
That ditty鈥攑opularized by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit which focuses on helping children use technology in safer and more meaningful ways鈥攊s meant to simplify a lesson that鈥檚 increasingly relevant for kids as young as two: Be careful about how much time you spend in the digital world and what you do while you鈥檙e there.
Talking to a preschooler about screentime limits, digital literacy, and cyber safety may seem a bit premature. But waiting until later in elementary school鈥攐r even middle or high school鈥攑uts children at a disadvantage, educators say.
鈥淐an you imagine trying to teach a high schooler to brush their teeth for the first time?鈥� asked Faith Rogow, an independent scholar and author of Media Literacy for Young Children: Teaching Beyond the Screen Time Debates, published this year. 鈥淚t鈥檚 much harder to instill that habit later on. It鈥檚 possible, but it鈥檚 harder.鈥�
By middle school, children who were given guidance on how to navigate digital spaces early on 鈥渁re knowledgeable of dangers that are out there. They're not using their accounts to bully people. [They] don't have 10 social media accounts.鈥�
The longer parents and teachers wait to help children safely explore the digital world, the more they will have to counter what the child has already learned from 鈥減eople who don鈥檛 share your values, who may not have a kid鈥檚 best interest at heart,鈥� such as social media companies, she added.
These days, most kids are getting exposure to digital spaces long before they learn to read. The overwhelming majority of children ages two to four鈥�93 percent鈥攕pend at least some time on mobile media, , which has
Device ownership can start even before most kids are toilet trained. Nine percent of children under age two have their own mobile device, according to the Common Sense report. That percentage increases as kids get older. Nearly half鈥�46 percent鈥攐f children between ages two and four have their own mobile devices, typically a tablet, Common Sense found.
Once students get to 4th or 5th grade, it is easy to distinguish the kids who received early digital citizenship and literacy training from those who are experiencing the concepts for the first time, said Darshell Silva, a librarian and technology integration specialist at Nathanael Greene Middle School in Providence, R.I.
By middle school, children who were given guidance on how to navigate digital spaces early on 鈥渁re knowledgeable of dangers that are out there,鈥� Silva said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not using their accounts to bully people. [They] don鈥檛 have 10 social media accounts. They have one or two social media accounts. They don鈥檛 share any personal information. And they also don鈥檛 believe everything they read on the internet.鈥�
Getting that background knowledge early is likely to become even more important now, as more schools provide kids in kindergarten, or even preschool, with a laptop or tablet to use in school and oftentimes at home too. Before the pandemic, less than half of educators reported that their elementary schools鈥�42 percent鈥攈ad 1-to-1 computing programs. That percentage soared to 84 percent by the spring of 2021, according to a survey conducted by the EdWeek Research Center.
Don鈥檛 stare at your screen and ignore those around you
Early digital literacy lessons don鈥檛 have to be complicated, Rogow said. In fact, they don鈥檛 even have to be digital. It鈥檚 possible to encourage kids to begin using their critical thinking skills early on, without ever picking up a device.
Parents or teachers can start by pointing out a piece of media, say a flier posted on a mailbox, and asking, 鈥淚 wonder who made that?鈥� That simple question will help little children begin to grasp the concept that someone created every piece of media they consume鈥攊t didn鈥檛 just appear out of nowhere. Eventually, children can begin considering how another person鈥檚 ideas and opinions may shape the messages they produce.
Putting healthy limits on screen time is also a big theme of early lessons, said Leticia Citizen, who works at Hawthorne Elementary School in Beverly Hills, Calif. She gets students thinking about those ideas as early as age four, during what is called 鈥渢ransitional kindergarten鈥� in California.
Citizen often kicks off her lessons by asking students to name at least one fun online activity from the past week, and at least one equally enjoyable offline experience.
She鈥檒l direct the youngsters to think about how some of the bright, fast-moving images in virtual spaces make them feel physically. Are their bodies restless after playing a game online for too long? Does it hurt their eyes? Or make their brains 鈥済o wonky and wiggly鈥�?
And she emphasizes to the children to pay attention to what鈥檚 going on around them, in the physical world, over what鈥檚 happening in the virtual one. Inspired in part by a Common Sense lesson, Citizen has students think about what they might do if they are in the middle of a digital game, maybe even about to win, and a parent or sibling comes up to ask a question.
鈥淲e talk about like how sometimes you don鈥檛 even hear them because you鈥檙e like so engrossed in what you鈥檙e doing,鈥� Citizen said. She鈥檒l ask her students, 鈥淲hat are some things that we need to do [to] respect and honor them coming to talk to you and being responsive, and then we can go back and play our game?鈥� And she asks them to name a time when they missed out on something fun鈥攍ike playing outside with a friend鈥攂ecause they were too wrapped up in a digital game or television show.
She helps them understand why keeping devices on at night鈥攃onsidered bad sleep hygiene by child development experts鈥�can be harmful. One of her favorite tools: A story about a family of rabbits kept awake by the sounds of various tablets and phones. (Spoiler alert: the mother bunny throws the devices out the window so everyone can get some shuteye.)
What to do when you find yourself in an unsafe space online
Online safety is part of the picture too. Most preschoolers and kindergarteners aren鈥檛 proficient readers, but they can still look at the pictures in online app stores. That means they鈥檙e bound to see ads that take them to digital products that might not be age appropriate.
Citizen shows students an online ad designed to appeal to children and asks how many of them would be drawn in by picture of, for instance, a cute elephant. Hands go up. Advertisers, she鈥檒l explain, may catch their eyes with flashy images, but they want something in return, typically money.
Other strangers that students might encounter online may want access to private information, or to track down a kid in real life. Citizen tries to put that danger in terms young children can understand.
鈥淲e talk about how there are adults and some kids who don鈥檛 always make the best choices, and sometimes their goal is to try to hurt us,鈥� Citizen said. They may ask for a child鈥檚 password, or want to know their name. She鈥檚 trained children not to give out any information鈥攏ot even their favorite color鈥攁nd to reach out to a parent or older sibling if they stumble on a corner of the internet that makes them feel unsafe or overwhelmed.
To be sure, it鈥檚 tough to tackle digital citizenship for the youngest children without parent outreach.
Part of that can just be about teaching caregivers how to use technology with their kids. For instance, some of Citizen鈥檚 youngest students play an online game, Roblox, which has a chat feature.
She helps the kids鈥攁nd their parents鈥攗nderstand that they can use controls to disable the chat feature, and explains why it鈥檚 not a good idea to talk to strangers online, the same way it鈥檚 smart to be careful about unfamiliar people in the physical world. They can also agree on screen time limits and set timers that will go off when a child should stop using a device and move on to another activity.
Some school districts offer parents formal training in helping their children navigate the online world, including the Los Angeles Unified School District, which will offer a course in the subject in its newly created Parent Academy.
By the time they get to high school, 鈥榯heir digital footprint is crazy鈥�
Children also need to understand that what they do online will leave a digital record that can be difficult to erase.
Silva has done Google searches on her name to show her students鈥攁nd, with permission, repeated the exercise with a student. They鈥檙e often surprised to see how much information about them is already available on the internet.
This kind of training can come too late for some kids. 鈥淎 lot of kids [go] to middle school鈥� without the digital citizenship lessons 鈥渁nd then before they get to high school their digital footprint is crazy,鈥� Silva said.
Cyberbullying is another focus of digital citizenship lessons later in elementary and middle school. For the most part, children as young as four or five aren鈥檛 using their tablets for social media. Instead, they鈥檙e playing games, sometimes with other children they may or may not know in the real world.
That creates an opening to talk about how to treat others in a digital space.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 new for kids to think about, that these are actually other people in the screen,鈥� particularly if they are represented by avatars, said Kelly Mendoza, the vice-president of educational programs for Common Sense Media. When it comes to things like kindness, taking turns, and being a gracious winner or loser, children need to understand that 鈥渂ehavior in the digital world needs to mirror our behavior in the in-person world.鈥�
