Search giant Google launched its “Be Internet Awesome” education program for educators a couple of years ago. The aim of the initiative was to create awareness among children regarding online safety.
This year, the company added a new component to the program to teach children regarding media literacy. The program, developed in partnership with the Net Safety Collaborative includes several play-to-learn activities that will help the children identify disinformation, such as Fake URLs or misleading headlines.
This part of the curriculum called the “Don’t Fall for Fake” includes activities that enhance children’s critical thinking skills. Here, they will also be able to differentiate between credible and non-credible news sources.
The program also contains medial literacy activities such as “Share with Care” and “It’s Cool to be Kind” that will help create awareness on how children can maintain a good online reputation and safeguard from cyber harassment respectively.
Additionally, Google is collaborating with the YMCA where they will help families talk to their children about internet safety, social media, cyberbullying, and disinformation.
Google recently faced a lot of scrutiny after its subsidiary YouTube was accused of spreading misinformation and propaganda, especially to the young user demographic.
In fact, internet critics are amused to see Google teaching children ways to identify disinformation, while at the same time not developing a robust technique to bring the false information down.
The new “Be Internet Awesome” curriculum is available for interested families and educators from today. The education program is targeted for young internet users between the ages of seven and twelve.
Photo: Google
Read next: 50 percent of YouTube viewers use it to learn new things
This year, the company added a new component to the program to teach children regarding media literacy. The program, developed in partnership with the Net Safety Collaborative includes several play-to-learn activities that will help the children identify disinformation, such as Fake URLs or misleading headlines.
This part of the curriculum called the “Don’t Fall for Fake” includes activities that enhance children’s critical thinking skills. Here, they will also be able to differentiate between credible and non-credible news sources.
The program also contains medial literacy activities such as “Share with Care” and “It’s Cool to be Kind” that will help create awareness on how children can maintain a good online reputation and safeguard from cyber harassment respectively.
Additionally, Google is collaborating with the YMCA where they will help families talk to their children about internet safety, social media, cyberbullying, and disinformation.
Google recently faced a lot of scrutiny after its subsidiary YouTube was accused of spreading misinformation and propaganda, especially to the young user demographic.
In fact, internet critics are amused to see Google teaching children ways to identify disinformation, while at the same time not developing a robust technique to bring the false information down.
The new “Be Internet Awesome” curriculum is available for interested families and educators from today. The education program is targeted for young internet users between the ages of seven and twelve.
Photo: Google
Read next: 50 percent of YouTube viewers use it to learn new things
