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Google Is Teaching Children How To Act Online. Is It the Best Role Model? (nytimes.com)
Google is positioning itself in schools as a trusted authority on digital citizenship at a moment when the company's data-handling practices are under growing scrutiny. From a report: Google is on a mission to teach children how to be safe online. That is the message behind "Be Internet Awesome," a so-called digital-citizenship education program that the technology giant developed for schools. The lessons include a cartoon game branded with Google's logo and blue, red, yellow and green color palette. The game is meant to help students from third grade through sixth guard against schemers, hackers and other bad actors. Google plans to reach five million schoolchildren with the program this year and has teamed up with the National Parent Teacher Association to offer related workshops to parents. But critics say the company's recent woes -- including revelations that it was developing a censored version of its search engine for the Chinese market and had tracked the whereabouts of users who had explicitly turned off their location history -- should disqualify Google from promoting itself in schools as a model of proper digital conduct.
The corporation shall educate your child accordingly
Listen - I won't argue that Google hasn't left behind something important with its "Don't be evil" philosophy.
But compared to 'adult' power morality in our nation, Google is still relatively saintly.
Our latest answer to violence is crueler violence - our adults are failing the most basic tests of civilization just to see their opponents squirm and laugh at it.
I think the kids are the sanest folks left, given the studies I've seen on how they're handling all this - and Google is one of the least horrible influences.
Other non google versions exist. I know that the Boy Scouts has a program for this through a partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It is also requirement at least at that cub scout level. I also know that my kids public school district uses the Scouts's program in their elementary school as it is available for anyone to use.
Time to offend someone
Left parents just are screaming for censorship. Right parents lack even the most basic ability to judge the credibility of sources. Generic corporate overlord Google is a much better adult guide than either of those two groups.