What is digital resilience and why children need it

If you were to do an experiment and let your children use technology freely, will they act wisely? The answer may motivate you to find out more about “digital resilience” and work with your children to make sure they can face online challenges successfully. 

Digital resilience refers to a set of skills children need to safely navigate the online world’s risks. It is basically the ability to tell the difference between right and wrong in digital life, to think critically, to make good decisions, and to be aware of the dangers and consequences of their actions.

“Left to their own devices, young people are unlikely to develop greater resilience and understanding without some opportunity to share their experiences with adults,” explains Dr. Richard Graham, Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, Nightingale Hospital and London Digital Mental Wellbeing Service.

How much screen time is too much? Why shouldn’t they watch this video? Why shouldn’t they send photos of themselves to somebody who asks for them? Why shouldn’t they meet with a stranger they chatted with in a favorite video game? What’s the difference between an innocent joke and trolling and bullying?

Children need parents to guide them through the digital world and set boundaries for them and to learn how to protect themselves.

Parents may find Parental Control software helpful. But the software acts only as the first line of defense for their family. Apart from protection, trustworthy technology should give parents the opportunity to talk about specific risks the app identifies for them. Read here how such a tool can help families face modern digital challenges.

Software, however, will never replace parents and their involvement and guidance.

In their report “Ordinary magic for the digital age: understanding children’s online resilience”, Parent Zone, a UK-based agency focusing on digital family life points out that the key for children’s safety is not to keep them away from the internet, but to help them understand when and why they are at risk online, know how to seek help if something bothers them and learn from experiences and mistakes.

Because nobody can protect them as well as they themselves can.