How’s your family’s digital wellbeing?

What is digital wellbeing?

We all know the importance of mental and physical wellbeing, but how often do you consider your digital wellbeing? Digital wellbeing means maintaining a healthy and safe relationship with the technologies we use every day. Ideally, it should mean that technology makes your life better instead of detracting from it.

With an ever-increasing proportion of our time being spent on our devices or using digital technology, families should be thinking about digital wellbeing. 

Digital wellbeing checklist 

Technology has become an essential part of school studies and building friendships. Just like we’d teach our kids about resilience, awareness and self-worth in real life, it’s important we show them the ropes in when it comes to resilience, awareness and self-worth online.

Not sure where to start? Here are five points to talk to when equipping your kids for the cyber-world:

Cyberbullying 

The ubiquity and anonymity of social media and smart phones means that cyberbullying can happen anywhere, anytime. But with the right tools and training, we ensure our kids maintain a healthy perspective about others’ online comments. Help your kids identify the signs of bullying, which are not always obvious at first, and equip them to speak up for themselves and others.  Raising good digital citizens also means teaching your kids to be accountable for their own behaviour.

Learn more about how you can do your part to stop cyberbullying.

Cybersecurity

Your personal information is valuable. Teach your kids about the importance of creating strong passwords, understanding your privacy settings on social media, and recognising just how far things can spread when shared online.

Digital identity

Your online persona, or digital identity, now shapes how others perceive you in real life. The personal information, photos, and comments that others see online affects their opinion of the virtual and physical ‘you’. Kids need to understand that everything they post can affect or alter their online persona and others’ perceptions of them. Conversely, it’s great for kids to understand the power they have to raise awareness on issues important to them. 

Digital discernment

Who we connect with online can contribute to our social circles and influence in our everyday lives. It’s important for kids to understand the difference between genuine, valuable social media accounts and contacts, and content crafted to influence purchasing decisions and opinions. Being able to weed out fake news and inauthenticity can protect self-worth, confidence and your wallet!

Digital Balance

If your kids are under 20 years old, they are digital natives – meaning that interacting through technology may come just as naturally to them as face-to-face discussion… if not more! It’s important for kids to understand the benefits of catching up with friends in real life, spend time away from the screen and learn what’s socially acceptable in the real world, too. 

How Digital Thumbprint can help

Want more tips on how to protect your family’s digital wellbeing?

Our Digital Thumbprint program provides learning modules which aim to build resilience, awareness and self-worth among our young people. 

You can learn more and download factsheets tailor-made for teachers and parents: https://www.digitalthumbprint.com.au/parent-resources/