Google has announced a new partnership today, to teach children about online safety and how to combat bullying and verbal abuse on the Internet. They¡¯ve teamed up with the National Parent Teachers Association in the US and the nonprofit DonorsChoose.org
The partnership lets companies donate directly to public schools, as part of the tech giant's "Be Internet Awesome" campaign. In essence, Google is trying to teach web users today, especially impressionable young kids, how to deal with all the negativity online. After all, many aspects of their lives are focused around the Internet at an earlier age than the generations before them.
¡°Research shows us that parents want to teach their kids how to be safe online but are unsure how to get the conversation going,¡± a Google employee organising the project, Julianne Yi, told The Verge. ¡°To help them, we created workshop kits so that parents can teach one another about how to spark productive discussions on digital safety and citizenship.¡±
For the schools taking part, they will receive free Pixelbook laptops to be distributed among the kids, as well as presentations in multiple languages to help teach the kids about being safe from harassment online.
Aside from the presentations that kids might understandably find a little dry, the project also has a module called ¡°Be Internet Legends¡±. This is a collection of free browser games available on the initiative¡¯s website, that help teach kids about concepts like recognising and reporting bullying, as well as how to help victims of it.
It also teaches them more basic safety precautions like how to build a strong password, how to recognise online scams, and how much personal information is safe to share on social media.