Grade 6 · SEL · Lesson 21

Digital kindness and netiquette

Every message you send online lands on a real person. The screen hides the face but not the feeling. Words you would never say out loud at lunch can sting twice as hard when they pop up in a chat at midnight. Digital kindness — sometimes called netiquette, the etiquette of the net — is the simple skill of treating people online with the same respect you would want offline. It also protects you, because everything you post becomes part of your digital footprint, the trail of comments, photos and likes that follows your name forever.

What this lesson teaches

1Explain that online interactions cause real impact and leave a lasting digital footprint
2Apply the pause-before-posting rule using the THINK acronym — True, Helpful, Inspiring, Necessary, Kind
3Sort everyday online behaviors as kind or unkind and pick a better choice for an unkind scenario
4Move from bystander to upstander when a mean comment appears by reporting, blocking or messaging support

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