Digital Citizenship in Social Studies: Teaching Kids to Survive the Internet
🧠Introduction: The New Battlefield In 2025, war isn't always fought with tanks and soldiers—it’s waged with memes, misinformation, cyberbullying, and screenshots. And the youngest soldiers in this war? Students. Children as young as 9 are surfing the internet unsupervised, absorbing content, forming opinions, and building an online identity often without the faintest clue about the consequences. Enter digital citizenship —the modern-day survival skill no textbook warned us about, and yet one we desperately need. But here’s the real kicker: Social Studies has always been about preparing students to function in society. And like it or not, digital life is real life now . If Social Studies doesn’t include digital citizenship, it’s just a dusty relic in a world of TikToks and AI chatbots. 📘 What is Digital Citizenship? A Modern-Day Compass Digital Citizenship isn’t just “not being mean online.” It’s a holistic understanding of how to behave, think, share, and act responsibly ...