Digital skills

The most important digital skills to develop in children

Digital-media literacy is key to the innovation, growth and prosperity of modern societies. However, not every user has the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to use the internet and digital media in a critical and creative way.

Children start using the internet on their own as early as 7-8 years old, often without the necessary knowledge on how to protect themselves and use digital technology to their advantage. Without the right skills, they limit their use of the internet to activities without educational value and are at risk of harmful information and online behaviour that they cannot cope with.

Particularly vulnerable are children from at-risk groups whose parents lack the capacity to support and control their use of digital devices. Lack of digital and social skills widens the social divide and deprives them of learning and development opportunities.

The education system therefore has a crucial role to play in preparing children for the world they live in – by building their digital-media competences.

What is digital competence?

The European Digital Competence Framework identifies five key areas of digital skills:

Information

Children need to be able to navigate through the huge flow of online content and distinguish true from false information. This includes:

Check information from several different sources;
Check the author and date of publication;
Assessment of publication objectives;
Check the sources cited;
Analysis of the messages and hidden purposes of the text.

It is also important that students learn how to properly cite sources by including: title, source, page (if applicable), link or publisher, and year of publication.

Communication

This area covers communication on social networks and online applications.
Children need to develop skills similar to those of face-to-face communication:

Observance of etiquette (netiquette) – greeting, respect, listening, polite expression of opinion;
Using personal expressions such as “I think…” to avoid conflict;
Check before sharing: Is it true? Is it useful? Is it polite? ;
Using emoticons to recognise and express emotions, developing empathy.

Everything children upload online – photos, comments, videos – is digital content, part of their digital identity. So they need to know:

What constitutes personal information and what is safe to publish;
Ask people who are present in a photo or video before uploading them online;
Be aware that everything they post stays on the internet and affects their reputation;
Respect copyright and intellectual property rights by crediting the authors of materials used.

Problem solving

The online environment often puts children in situations requiring coping skills and help-seeking:

Resolve technical or interpersonal conflicts;
Ability to seek help from a parent, teacher, school psychologist or the National Center for Safe Internet;
Knowledge of how to block or report users in unpleasant situations;
Creative use of technology to solve a variety of problems.

Safety

Online safety combines all of the above competencies and includes:

Know the risks on the Internet;
Personal data protection and profiles;
Using device and application security settings;
Create strong passwords and understand how to protect personal accounts.

Help and support

The National Safer Internet Centre offers an Online Safety Helpline where children, parents and teachers can seek advice on child safety issues online.