Teen Digital Citizenship Challenge

Whether on or offline, making smart, healthy choices is important. Take the Teen Digital Citizenship Challenge and grow your digital literacy skills. The challenge includes resources to read and watch, as well as activities to help you learn about issues like privacy, advertising, bullying, fake news, and healthy media diets.

> DIGITAL ETIQUETTE

• WATCH: Oversharing: Think Before You Post by Flocabulary via Common Sense Media
• WATCH: What is private and what is personal information?
• THINK: Are you overposting? Do your posts and comments include or offend others?

> HEALTHY DIGITAL MEDIA DIET

Balancing your time online and offline can be tricky, but it's important. How do you make sure you have enough time to read, learn, stay in touch, get exercise, create, sleep, and connect with friends and family in person?

• DO: What is the perfect balance for you? Use the interactive media time calculator found on the American Academy of Pediatrics' Healthy Children website.
• THINK: Does your family need a media plan? Do you need screen-free zones (i.e. bedrooms) or screen-free times (i.e. meal times)? Each family is different, but the American Academy of Pediatrics' Healthy Children website can help you decide what is best for you.

> AUTHORSHIP & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Do you create and post online original artwork, fan fiction, or music? What happens when someone else shares or sells it? Do you still own it?

• WATCH: Learn about intellectual property and copyright with young adult author John Green by watching Across Three Continents: A Tale of Tumblr, Copyright, and Excellent Posters
• THINK: Who owns that image you just copied and shared or blogged?

> SOCIAL MEDIA, BODY IMAGE, GENDER, & POPULARITY

• THINK: What posts get the most attention? How can posts and images go wrong? How does gender impact what gets posted?

> FAKE NEWS

Can you tell the difference between fact and fiction in the news?

• READ: How to Spot Fake News infographic
• DO: Find a news headline, read the article, and visit one of these fact-checking sites to verify if the information is real.
  • Snopes.com
  • Factcheck.org
  • Politifact
• THINK: When you share gossip, do you know if the information is fact or fiction? How will the gossip affect the person or people it's about?

> I'VE BEEN HACKED!

Do you know how to report a hacked social media account or innappropriate images, posts, or comments?

• DO: Go to your favorite social media app and find where this information is located.

> PRIVACY

Whenever you post online, you create a digital footprint. Your online image will follow you wherever you go.

• THINK: What do you want your personal brand to be when you apply for jobs, college, military service, or scholarships? What do you want your digital footprint to say about you?
• DO: Make sure your passwords are secure and keep them private. Don't share them with friends.
• DO: Make sure your social media privacy settings are up-to-date. Check them regularly because developers make changes often.

> BULLYING

"Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior...that involves a real or perceived power imbalance." [StopBullying.gov]

Sometimes bullying involves verbal threats, rumors, negative comments, or embarrassing images posted online, intentionally excluding someone from a group, or physical abuse.

• READ: What is Cyberbulling?
• WATCH: Stand Up to Cyberbullying
• THINK: Have you witnessed cyberbulling? What did you do about it? What can you do about it?

> ADVERTISING

Ads are everywhere. Kids, teens, and adults need to be smart consumers of both products and ideas. Do you really want to buy what the advertiser is selling? You decide.

• THINK: Choose an ad online, on TV, or in a magazine. Can you answer these three questions about the ad?
  • Who's responsible for the ad?
  • What is the ad actually saying?
  • What does it want you to buy, do, or think?
• CREATE: Create an ad for a product using paper and pen, a digital image with an editing app, a video, or voice recording. Think about what you want to sell, who you want to sell it to, and what you want the buyer to know.