Roy Murphy | Creative Director

Are the basic skills required to get on in life being taught in our schools. Does the school system introduce pupils to the wider world through the internet in the best way?

Today’s connected world affects our children much more than it us. With the second digital generation growing quickly the time is right to ensure that a proper understanding of the digital environment is taught.

Inclusiveness is a word bandied about with increasing regularity by the political parties. But the travesty of the The digital britain paper has missed a huge trick – in mistakenly concentrating on what we should’t be doing with our bandwidth. Instead it should serve the communitity and our children to grow up in a switched on, 24/7 world where protecting their digital persona is as important as in the real world.

With issues such as cyberbullying becoming regularly reported and the increase in facebook and twitter membershiop continuing to explode, now is the time to teach those who will grow up in this digital world how to look after themselves online. The importance of trust and honesty and the ability to promote and project a confident, knowledgeable face to the world is crucial to help with this

Knowing what to do when an individual is being harassed, where to turn, what recourse there may be will make sure everyone can be confident about how to harness the digital power we now carry around with us in our pockets. In 20 years digital power has gone from carrying a suitcase sized mainframe with a novel’s worth of information in it to having the world’s library at your fingertips. With this power comes responsibility.
A confident digital britain of the future needs to lead the way to switching on a new generation of savvy, knowledgeable, aware, confident digital kids.

Instead of concentrating on the forever delayed analouge switch off of 2012 why not concentrate on handing the keys to a better life now.

Compulsory ‘how to handle cyber bullying’ courses would be a start. Being aware that everyone isn’t who they say they are online is the another step to developing a digitally literate generation. One who understands their place at the heart of the information culture and who can grow up knowing how to handle our connected society, where its perils and pitfalls are, as well as its growth opportunities.

Reputation is the 4th R it is time to implement it in our schools and colleges