Navigating Online Safely and the Importance of Digital Citizenship

Living in the ever-evolving digital world, where everything is hyper-connected with each other, digital citizens need to acknowledge their rights and responsibilities when using digital media. Digital citizens are people who use the internet regularly, effectively, and are set to sail with a set of rules called “digital citizenship”.

Digital citizenship is how one can navigate safely, ethically, appropriately, and effectively for whatever lawful purposes without compromising their safety and others on the internet. The practice of being safe online is related to communicating respectfully by having empathy and understanding differences. This goes hand-in-hand with knowing that there are people behind the comments and creative content on the internet. 

Furthermore, understanding the inevitable risk and fruitful potential in the online world could be potential to digital citizens.  “Digital tattoo”, how Kieron from British School Jakarta phrased digital footprint, is one of the things that digital citizens need to be aware of. A digital footprint is a record of someone’s activities online, both passively and actively. It is briefly one of the sayings, “Once you post something on the internet, it might be there forever”. A digital footprint is something we all need to be held accountable and responsible for.

YCAB Foundation with UK TechHub and British School Jakarta virtually sat together and shared their expertise about digital citizenship in a relaxed talk show on October 14, 2021. This #TechTalk is aimed to educate public viewers, parents, teachers, and students about the importance of being responsible for our acts and communicating safely when we are present in the online world.

“There are things that we can do to keep ourselves safe while enjoying all the perks we have once we are connected to the digital world. One, take your account passwords very seriously, make them as intricate and unguessable as possible. Two, invest your time and effort wisely on the internet. Three, always use a VPN when browsing. Four, never download or click anything from a website provider/people that you don’t trust. Last but not least, think before you post, for it may stay on the internet forever.”, added Nandya Natalia, a Trainer from YCAB Foundation.