A digital citizen refers to a person utilising information technology (IT) in order to engage in society, politics, and government. K. Mossberger et al. define digital citizens as „those who use the Internet regularly and effectively“. Digital citizens understand digital citizenship, which is the appropriate use of technology.
According to nine elements of digital citizenship from the digitalcitizenship.net, I would like to divide them into four parts to illustrate.
The access to the Internet:
Digital access: We talked about this in China in the first part. As data showed before, we have more than 23.9 million children can be classified as a digital citizen.
The access to digital commerce:
Digital commerce: This is the ability for users to recognise that much of the economy is regulated online. It also deals with the understanding of the dangers and benefits of online buying, using credit cards online, and so forth. As with the advantages and legal activities- there is also dangerous activities such as illegal downloads, gambling, drug deals, pornography, plagiarism, and so forth.
The access to understanding including digital communication, digital literacy and digital etiquette:
Digital communication: This element deals with understanding the variety of online communication mediums such as email, instant messaging, Facebook messenger, the variety of apps, and so forth. There is a standard of etiquette associated with each medium. The children have the same right in these digital applications but do not understand all of them, that’s why the designer should re-think the interaction between children and digital use.
Digital literacy: This deals with the understanding of how to use various digital devices. For example, how to properly search for something on a search engine versus a database. How to use various online logs. Oftentimes many educational institutions will help form an individual’s digital literacy.
Digital etiquette: As discussed in the third element, digital communication, this is the expectation that various mediums require a variety of etiquette. Certain mediums demand more appropriate behaviour and language than others. The digital transaction can be a specific medium, which reflects family relationship, social status and personnel management. We should explore more appropriate design language for mobile payment.
How children understand the consumption content, consumption patterns and consumption etiquette in the digital world are blank now, and these three parts will play an essential role in the cultivation of children’s monetary consciousness. The Communication of these three parts is directly related to the design.
The primary access:
Digital law: This is where enforcement occurs for illegal downloads, plagiarizing, hacking, creating viruses, sending spams, identity theft, cyberbullying, and so forth.
Digital rights and responsibilities: This is the set of rights digital citizens have such as privacy, speech, and so forth.
Digital health: Digital citizens must be aware of the physical stress placed on their bodies by internet usage. They must be aware to not become overly dependent on the internet causing eye strain, headaches, stress problems, and so on.
Digital security: This simply means that citizens must take measures to be safe by practising using difficult passwords, virus protection, backing up data, and so forth.
As a digital citizen, Why children need to reconstruct their monetary consciousness? First, the ubiquitous Internet poses specific health and safety threats to children’s mental and physical health. Second, children also have the rights and responsibilities of digital citizens and are also subject to legal constraints. All of these first accesses of a digital citizen should be accepted and be respected by all digital designers.
links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_citizen
Two good TED Videos about Children as a digital citizen to share, which can make you understand better what the dilemma is.
