Being a good person demands developing behavioral, ethical, and cultural manners and habits.
As we manage to learn, organize our work and professions, raise our families, struggle with daily costs and activities, and all the problems we face, we must stay honest and responsible persons.
Creating Your Original Personal Reputation
Every individual strives to create a “brand” of their personality and profession. How we act, react, and behave reflects the image we send to other people.
Digital Personality
We should have the same positive habits and behavior in the digital world, just like in real life. Being a good individual offline demands being a good individual online too.
From the moment our kids are born, we teach them how to become good and responsible people. As they live in a fast-growing digital world we must be focused on their online behavior.
What is Online Reputation?
The kind of posts, pictures, content, or comments we publish on social media, or other media outlets on the Internet is online reputation.
Importance of Online reputation for our kids
We parents must teach our kids to be good digital citizens and provide ethical behavior online. Their acts affect others and themselves as well. To gain a positive online reputation, our kids must respect the rules of tech life.
How can our Children’s Reputations be Ruined?
Pictures or content your kids post online can harmfully be used by others users, which is why our kids should be aware of what they are posting.
Managing their online presence provides future safety. Hackers and other dangerous users can use your child’s photos or personal information to fake profiles, steal identities, and share information with other users about us.
How to Manage Children’s Online Reputation
As much as we know how important is to have a safe digital journey, we also must teach our children to gain a positive online reputation. They need to evaluate their actions, and you are there to help them.
Facts and Rules
We can and must educate children about safely using technology. Our kids have to follow the following rules when they’re online:
- Avoid unknown websites and strangers;
- Avoid joining suspicious groups;
- Avoid accepting challenges or requests;
- Detect and report abnormal behavior;
- Use accounts properly and carefully;
Monitor your Children’s Online Activity
When we allow our kids to go online and create an account, we parents must create an account for ourselves as well, or check our kids’ profiles manually and revise their activity.
When we notice negative online behavior from our kids, we must demand they stop making those mistakes. If we can’t agree with our kid, we can delete his account permanently (that sounded kind of harsh).
Also, of course, technology can help! For example, eSafety is a great site that offers parents and children to report online harassment.
Teaching Children About Positive Online Behavior
If we parents managed to teach our children how to be good people, we have prepared them for good digital behavior too. Positive online behavior includes:
- Being friendly and respectful with others;
- Having a polite and positive attitude;
- Avoid arguing and offending someone;
- Avoid publishing too many private pictures;
- Avoid commenting and humiliating others;
Responding to Negative Content
If some users post aggressive, inappropriate, harmful, or threatening comments on our kid’s post or picture, our kid should report, block or restrict this user.
Studies show that roughly 46% of students have experienced a form of online bullying in 2021. That’s nearly half of the students on the planet!
The Risks of Having a Poor Online Reputation
Sometimes people do things just to ruin someone else’s reputation and personality. But often, we ruin our reputation ourselves. Every single content, picture, or comment that was once published remains in the Internet’s database forever. Therefore we must educate our kids to be aware of the risks of impulsive online actions and reactions.
Future Opportunities Endangered
If we don’t take today seriously, we might have problems in the future. That is why our kids should act responsibly online and gain a positive reputation.
Their public profile can be dug up and analyzed when they are applying for university or a job interview. And if your child has posted inappropriate pictures, content, or comments in the past they can lose the chances of being accepted.
Impact on Mental Health and Self-esteem
Having a habit of posting negative content online can lead to mental health issues and low self-esteem. Posting something foolish years ago can shame us today. That is why our kids must be careful regarding their posts.
Damaging Personal Relationships.
Imagine a picture of a boy and girl in love published 15 years ago only to appear now on the Internet when both have their own families and other partners.
Different examples prove how trust can be broken in the future, and families face the consequences.
How to Ensure a Safe Future for our Children
Our main goal as parents is to provide safety and compassion throughout our children’s life. We must constantly remind our kids to build a positive online reputation because their future might depend on that.
Avoid Getting Lost in the Huge Digital World
To be active online means how you present your personality in front of a big auditorium. Our kids need to develop positive ethics and basic human morale so they can easily be aware of threats that come their way.
Often people share propaganda on social media, and if our children display positive online behavior, they’ll immediately know not to follow those users.
Embracing Rules and Being Self-Critical
Children often forget to look at themselves in the mirror, to reflect upon their decision, and to understand what’s right and wrong. Implying rules and several other limits might just help out your children in building a positive and bright online reputation.
Conclusion
We, parents, must include our kids in all aspects of living and teach them how to face different situations and develop a unique personality, human ethics, and morale.
Technology, on the other hand, also has a huge impact on our kids’ life, so they need to respect the rules of the digital world if they want to use all its advantages. To conclude, teaching your kids to be kind, helpful, responsible, and honest is a must for today’s world.
ALSO READ: How to Teach Your Kids Digital Etiquette
