{"id":399,"date":"2010-09-28T13:12:20","date_gmt":"2010-09-28T19:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/2010\/09\/28\/pbs-kids-launches-digital-citizenship-initiave-for-online-youth\/"},"modified":"2010-10-08T14:51:41","modified_gmt":"2010-10-08T20:51:41","slug":"pbs-kids-launches-digital-citizenship-initiave-for-online-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/2010\/pbs-kids-launches-digital-citizenship-initiave-for-online-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"PBS Kids Launches Digital Citizenship Initiative for Online Youth"},"content":{"rendered":"

PBS announced today the launch of its PBS KIDS GO! Digital Citizenship Initiative to help kids and parents navigate today\u2019s digital landscape.\u00a0 The initiative features a suite of new resources for kids and parents, among them a new interactive, online game Webonauts Internet Academy designed to teach kids about online privacy, how to deal with bullying and how to distinguish credible sources online.\u00a0 The Webonauts Internet Academy is available free on PBSKIDSGO.org\/webonauts.\u00a0 Parents can find helpful supporting information on PBSPARENTS.org, including tips for kids\u2019 internet use from Common Sense Media.<\/p>\n

\u201cPBSKIDS.org and PBSKIDSGO.org are often the first internet experiences for young children, attracting close to 10 million unique visitors monthly. Like learning to ride a bicycle, the first adventures should be carefully monitored by parents and assisted with training wheels before a child is ready to ride solo,\u201d said Lesli Rotenberg, SVP, Children\u2019s Media, PBS. \u201cThe PBS KIDS GO! Digital Citizenship Initiative provides the tools and support parents and kids need to feel confident they are ready to explore their online independence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Support for younger computer users is more important than ever as online media consumption for youth continues to rise. According to a January 2010 report from the Kaiser Family Foundation, the top online activities for 8-18 year-olds include social networking, playing games and visiting video sites such as YouTube.\u00a0 Seventy four percent of all 7th-12th graders say they have a profile on a social networking site. The PBS KIDS GO! Digital Citizenship Initiative will arm children with web knowledge before they become immersed in it as tweens and teens.<\/p>\n

\u201cParents everywhere are struggling to navigate the sea change in their children\u2019s media consumption.\u00a0 Instead of challenging families to flip the switch off, initiatives like this are critical to support parents with resources that help them understand what they can expect from media and, in turn, guide their kids to become savvy users of media,\u201d said Erin Reilly, Research Director for Project New Media Literacies at USC\u2019s Annenberg School for Communications & Journalism and academic advisor to the Webonauts Internet Academy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough this partnership with PBS KIDS GO!, we have an even greater opportunity to reach both kids and parents and empower them to embrace the skills they need to make safe, responsible, and respectful decisions in today\u2019s 24\/7 digital world,\u201d said James Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media.<\/p>\n

Privacy Priorities<\/p>\n

A Wall Street Journal investigative report published earlier this month found many children\u2019s websites install more tracking technologies on personal computers than some of the top websites for adults.\u00a0 The report brings to light how sites for youngsters can track age, tastes, hobbies, shopping habits, race, likelihood to post comments and general location. It notes that privacy practices vary widely, tasking parents and other caregivers to decode sites\u2019 privacy policies.<\/p>\n

PBSKIDS.org fared well in the report.\u00a0 \u201cProtecting the privacy of children visiting PBSKIDS.org and PBSKIDSGO.org is of utmost importance to PBS,\u201d commented Rotenberg.\u00a0 \u201cSince launching PBSKIDS.org in 1997, PBS has been a leader in online safety for children, strictly adhering to the Children\u2019s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and to our own high standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Resources for Kids and Parents<\/p>\n

In the Webonauts Internet Academy, children play through a series of 12 missions adhering to the Webonauts\u2019 motto:\u00a0 \u201cObserve, Respect, Contribute.\u201d\u00a0 Each mission helps children understand critical online safety issues, such as the importance of protecting passwords and maintaining privacy settings.\u00a0 Other missions teach how to differentiate between credible and non-credible sources of information and how to react to bullying.<\/p>\n

When all missions are completed, children become full-fledged Webonauts and earn their Webonauts Internet Academy Certificate, which they can proudly display in their virtual room at the Webonauts Internet Academy or print out to display at home.<\/p>\n

Related to the launch of the Webonauts Internet Academy, PBS will offer free discussion guides and other online and printable resources to help parents and educators foster a discussion about online safety and good digital citizenship with children.\u00a0 These materials will be available for free on PBSPARENTS.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PBS announced today the launch of its PBS KIDS GO! Digital Citizenship Initiative to help kids and parents navigate today\u2019s digital landscape.\u00a0 The initiative features a suite of new resources for kids and parents, among them a new interactive, online game Webonauts Internet Academy designed to teach kids about online privacy, how to deal with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paSd8M-6r","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}