Some of America’s biggest brands have made a full curriculum of digital workshops available for children and teenagers to learn about life on the internet. Topics covered include online safety, emotional awareness, cyberbullying and enhancing empathy.
The premium workshops developed by leading Palo Alto based nonprofit, The Cybersmile Foundation, were recently made available online for free to schools and parents, aimed at helping children and young adults from the age of 5 to 16+ navigate life online. The digital workshops have been offered to the public thanks to the support of Claire’s Inc, Twitter, Riot Games, Microsoft and Intel.
Earlier this year, Mixer, Microsoft’s game streaming platform, announced a long-term partnership with Cybersmile to address toxicity and harassment in gaming. Using the partnership as a launchpad, a new Viewer-to-Viewer chat mute and a chat mod tool that can detect harassing language on Mixer was announced, reinforcing the platform’s ongoing commitment to a positive community environment.
The new digital workshops by The Cybersmile Foundation can be downloaded for free online, enabling parents, teachers and students to learn more about life online. Each workshop contains comprehensive exercise plans that address specific topics to help users become more emotionally resilient and aware of online risks. With incidents of cyberbullying and online harassment increasing, it’s becoming more important than ever for people of all ages to be prepared for a safe digital life.
Other major brands such as Google have been developing online platforms and education programs, revolutionizing how education is delivered in what is being called Education 4.0 – education in the fourth industrial revolution.
Over the past several years, global internet use has been on the rise, with an estimated 3.2 billion people connected in 2015, increasing to over 4.3 billion as of 2019, with the trend set to continue. China, India and other developing nations have led this surge, but as a consequence, incidents of online harassment, abuse, and cyberbullying have also been increasing around the world – intensifying the need for scalable and sustainable solutions for education and support.
With educational programs such as workshops that teach digital civility being introduced, corporations and stakeholders are taking meaningful strides to address the balance of negativity on the internet.