You don’t have to live very long before you realize a grand truth: Success and safety often come from adherence to a few fundamental principles.
This truth also applies to how we conduct ourselves on the Internet. That’s why I was happy to come across a succinct list of Internet conduct DOs and DONT’s from Microsoft’s Online Safety Community. While the list has been up for a while and doesn’t mention anything new, great things would happen if more of us would follow its core principles.
As I see it, those core principles are these: DO use the Internet to accomplish good, useful things, and DON’T use the Internet to do mean, dishonest and dangerous things.
My favorite DO from Microsoft’s list is this: “DO use the Internet to communicate and interact with others.” Granted, the Internet is full of danger and privacy concerns. But the Internet is also an insanely convenient way to communicate with people across the world, learn new things and increase our value to current and future employers. Why wouldn’t we want to take advantage of such a gift?
My favorite DON’T from Microsoft’s list is this: “DON’T encourage cyberbullies.” Both bullies and the bullied know that a bully’s fire is fueled by retaliation of the victim. Often, the best thing you can do to get rid of a cyberbully is to ignore them.
Of course, staying safe on the Internet is not always so easy, and we should all have a basic understanding of how to stay safe online. A little knowledge can go a long way towards helping you and your children safely navigate the Internet.
I encourage you to visit the Microsoft Online Safety Community (the Internet Keep Safe Coalition is a member). There you’ll find a wealth of information from various industry leaders to help you safely surf the Web.
Samuel Hislop is a regular contributor to the official internet safety blog of the iKeepSafe Coalition.You can learn more about child internet safety and ethics by visiting iKeepSafe.org.
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