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.

Comments

Sure.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Sure.

[dcw3]

No, just because you've read about a few jackasses in the news, tv or interweb, doesn't make it the norm for the vast majority of parents. Those are all busy catching eyeballs to increase revenue with the latest train wreck...it's just not reality. Why do you think we hear stories about some beautiful young getting killed or kidnapped, for weeks, and yet every single day there are multiple murders across the entire country. It's because they're not interested in reporting the actual news, they just want your attention to sell ads.

No, parents should be handling that

[KixWooder]

Except at the current, neither is,otherwise you wouldn't have the likes of 4chan and reddit, where you say one thing and you called a cuck and doxed.

Finally someone snaps does real harm or causes harm to themselves. Thoughts and prayers abound and suicide prevention hotlines are posted, when it wouldn't be needed if people were just nicer to one another online and in real life.

Other version already exist

[Bob the Super Hamste]

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.