Making digital kindness a daily habit: beyond Pink Shirt Day

Pink Shirt Day, celebrated the last Wednesday of every February, reminds us about the importance of standing up against bullying. However, creating a culture of digital kindness needs more than just one day of awareness. As adults supporting youth, we can help young people build lasting habits that promote respectful online behaviour all year round. Here's how we can make digital kindness an everyday practice in our interactions with youth.

Start with daily digital discussions

Just as we ask youth about their day at school or other activities, we should regularly check in about their online experiences. Try conversation starters like "What was the kindest thing you saw online today?", "Did anything upset you while you were online?", or "How did you help someone in your online community today?" These simple questions open the door for meaningful conversations about digital citizenship and give you insights into the young person's online world.

Make kindness the default setting

Teaching digital kindness is similar to teaching real-world manners. Encourage youth to wait 24 hours before responding to anything that upsets them online. This cooling-off period often prevents reactive posts that they might regret later. Before posting or commenting, ask youth to consider, "Would you be comfortable with a trusted adult seeing this?" This simple question can help prevent inappropriate or unkind posts. Create a digital kindness calendar where everyone commits to one act of digital kindness each day. This could include leaving a positive comment on someone's post, sharing an uplifting story, supporting a friend's online achievement, or reporting harmful content to protect others. By making these small acts a daily habit, we can foster a more positive online environment.

Building digital resilience

While promoting kindness is crucial, we also need to help youth handle online negativity. Encourage them to save evidence of any concerning online behaviour, block users who are consistently negative, report serious issues to platform and/or moderators, and talk to trusted adults about problems they encounter. Help youth identify their "digital support team" - friends, family members, and trusted adults they can turn to when facing online challenges.

Making it a collaborative effort

Lead by example with regular digital maintenance activities. Schedule monthly digital cleanups to review and update privacy settings, clean up friend/follower lists, delete unnecessary apps, and discuss recent online experiences. Create and regularly review a digital agreement that outlines expected online behaviour, consequences for unkind actions, strategies for handling cyberbullying, and guidelines for screen time and content.

Extending kindness beyond your immediate circle

Encourage youth to be "digital upstanders" when witnessing online negativity. Remind them to support the target privately, report serious incidents, and share positive content to counter negativity. Inspire them to create and share content for good, such as positive memes, uplifting videos, supportive messages, and educational content about digital citizenship.

Maintaining momentum throughout the year

Keep digital kindness active with ongoing practices. Focus on different aspects of digital kindness each month, such as online empathy, digital citizenship, privacy awareness, responsible sharing, and inclusive behaviour. Schedule weekly discussions about recent online experiences, new apps or platforms, digital safety concerns, and positive online interactions. Celebrate and recognize when young people stand up against cyberbullying, create positive online content, support others digitally, or make good online choices.

While building these habits, keep these fundamental principles in mind:

1. Model good behaviour: Your online behaviour sets the standard for youth. Show them how to post thoughtfully, respond to negativity calmly, protect privacy, and support others online.
2. Keep communication open: Maintain an environment where youth feel comfortable sharing online concerns, negative experiences, questions about digital behaviour, successes and achievements.
3. Stay informed: Keep up with new social media trends, popular apps and platforms, online safety tools, digital citizenship resources and subscribe to the TELUS Wise newsletter.

Creating a year-round culture of digital kindness takes consistent effort, but the rewards are worth it. By making these practices part of your daily routine, you're helping youth develop essential skills for navigating the digital world responsibly and compassionately.

Remember, every small act of digital kindness counts. When we make kindness a habit rather than an event, we create lasting change that extends far beyond Pink Shirt Day. Together, we can #EndBullying and build a more positive online environment for everyone, one thoughtful post at a time.