The Internet is ruling our lives today, and we use the net for just about everything. A study done in 2020 suggests that a person spends on an average 2 hours and 25 minutes daily on the internet browsing through websites, social media platforms, and using the search engine.

Children shouldn’t be introduced to the internet before the age of 8 years. Parents need to lay down certain guidelines and continuously monitor the child’s activities until they are responsible enough to know what’s right for them.

Education Institutes in Dubai and other Middle Eastern countries take the help of the TechnoInternet Curriculum by TechnoKids to promote responsible digital citizenship and introduce junior graders to the world of the Internet. The topics covered hereunder are as follows;

1. Developing Search Strategies

Search engines have a massive pool of information and they search through 625 million websites to provide you with appropriate content. The most popular search engines are Google®, Bing®, and Yahoo®. Search strategies include –

• Use Correct Keywords:

The keywords that you input lead to the search results, and hence keywords entered should be very specific. For example, if you are looking for ‘headphones’ online, then only by typing ‘headphones’ may lead you to many pages and all different sorts of products. By mentioning the specifications ‘Bluetooth headphones white color’ you will get the exact option that you needed.

• Eliminating Any unwanted Elements:

When you search a ‘word’ or a ‘phrase’ there are chances you might use punctuation marks like ( – ) hyphen, ( ; ) semicolon, or apostrophe ( ‘ ) which may cause the search query to not be properly interpreted and thereby leading to an erroneous result.

2. Collecting Bookmarks

After reading a particular webpage on the net you would close it without realizing that it could come in handy to you the next time. Bookmarking a URL makes it easy to re-visit the page later on. Students are taught the steps to bookmark a page and then learn how to reference it to revisit later, from the toolbar at the top.

3. Check the Authenticity of the Website

The rampant amount of Internet frauds and scams are making it increasingly unsafe for users, especially children to browse the net, without taking precautions. Students are introduced to different ways by which they can identify which sites are genuine. Here are some tips to gain confidence about the authenticity of websites;

• Usually, HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure), is an indication that the site is secure.
• View the digital certificate by clicking on the address bar and selecting the certificate section.
• Visit the brand’s social media sites to further cross-verify, how genuine the brand is.

4. Following Safe Practices

Millions of people fall prey to cybercrime and hence basic safety etiquette needs to be practiced, such as; 

• Setting strong passwords on websites 
• Not sharing your personal details on any suspicious web link or landing page 
• Do not fill important forms on public WiFi networks 
• Avoid saving credit/debit card details on Payment Gateway sites 

All the above topics are discussed with children via games and activities to make the learning process interactive & fun, instead of referring to a computer textbook. TechnoInternet is therefore driving fundamentals of correct internet usage amongst learners across schools in GCC Countries and the UAE, to raise a generation of prudent net users. 

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