Responsibility Blog

Digital Literacy in a Virtual World

By Kathy Brown | November 2, 2009

The Safe Internet Alliance held its annual conference on Capitol Hill (Oct. 20), where I spoke about what we’re learning from consumers when it comes to Internet safety.

The upshot: there’s plenty of good news about what people are doing with broadband and wireless technologies.

The good news is tempered, however, by gaps in digital literacy. Our research, in fact, shows some skittishness among consumers. They aren’t generally aware about the tools and resources that are available to help them navigate the oceans of digital media out there. Consequently, they don’t feel as much in control as they would like. And they’re very concerned about privacy and security. Data we’ve seen shows most have little confidence in any institution to keep their information adequately protected. The greatest fears: identity theft and hacking.

So, where are the areas in which we need to concentrate? We’re convinced that we need digital literacy programs to teach the rules of the road, and to empower parents and teachers to embrace our digital culture, as well as address the potential negatives.

That’s why one of the things we’re doing in this area is partnering with PBS to report out the findings of Frontline’s Digital Nation study on what all of this means to us.

In a very practical way, Frontline is exploring the impact of what’s going on in this virtual world. By February they will produce a full length film that takes what I believe will be a significant step toward providing us with the knowledge we need to take advantage of our connectivity in a very productive way.