Your kids finally have down when to say "please" and "thank you?" Looks like it's time for the next round of manners training: how to be polite on the 'net.
South Korea has launched a program in its schools dedicated to teaching little kids to be nice on the 'net. It sounds like they need it.
Not that South Koreans are particularly obnoxious! But according to research, South Korean kids are among the youngest internet surfers in the world. A group called the National Internet Development Agency of Korea, determined that by
December 2007, Korea's "internet penetration rate" of people above age six was more than seventy-six percent. The international average is closer to twenty-two percent for kids six and up.
The nation's heads of education have taken a serious look at cyberbullying and its devastating affects on kids (including notable young TV stars who killed themselves after receiving threats online and a teenage girl who hung herself after her appearance on TV about her challenges with weight drew significant amounts of online snark). Here in America, cyberbullying is said to affect at least forty-two percent of our kids who use the internet. Fifty-eight percent of our kids have admitted to having had mean or hurtful things said to them while online. The same number said they didn't bother to tell their parents when it happened.
It seems smart to start the kids young on being respectful and using good manners despite the anonymity of the 'net. But is this something they really need to teach in schools? Check out this video of the little South Korean kids singing netiquette songs:
They're guardian angels to their internet friends, but what about their in-your-face friends?
Via Lemondrop
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