It's cool to be kind
Mind your tone
Goals
Make the right decisions when choosing how and what to communicate.
Identify situations in which waiting until you are face-to-face with someone is a better way to communicate than sending a text or message that may be taken the wrong way.
Let's talk
Itʼs easy to misunderstand
Young people use different types of communication for different kinds of interaction, but messages sent via chat and text can be interpreted differently than they would in person or over the phone.
Have you ever been misunderstood in text? For example, have you ever texted a joke and your friend thought you were being serious – or even mean?
Have you ever misunderstood someone else in a text or chat? What did you do to help clarify the communication? What could you do differently?
Activity
Review messages
Letʼs take a look at these sample text messages on the board. Your children probably have great examples too, so let’s write some more to discuss.
- “Thatʼs so cool”
- “Whatever”
- “Iʼm so mad at you”
- “CALL ME NOW”
- “Kk fine”
Read messages out loud Now
For each message, you are going to ask your children to read it aloud in a specific tone of voice (e.g., 
).
What do you notice? How might these come across to other people? How might each “message sender” better communicate what they really mean?
Takeaway
It can be hard to understand how someone is really feeling when youʼre reading a text. Be sure you choose the right tool for your next communication – and that you donʼt read too much into things that people say to you online. If you are unsure what the other person meant, find out by talking with them in person or on the phone.
Vocabulary
Search engines have a safe search filter to prevent children coming into contact with inappropriate content. Only search results that are appropriate for the whole family are shown. This filter is enabled as follows:
Bing: in the upper right corner, click Settings and then Safe Search to enable the filter (you can choose “moderate” and “strict”).
Google: click Settings > Search settings in the lower right corner. Select Turn on SafeSearch.
Yahoo: in the upper right corner, click Settings > Search Preferences and choose SafeSearch mode ("moderate "or "strict").
YouTube also has a mode to filter inappropriate content. Click your account icon in the upper right corner > Restricted Mode and activate. Or you can download the YouTube Kids app on your smartphone, tablet or smart TV. This app is aimed at children aged between 3 and 12 and contains child-friendly videos only.
The internet offers endless opportunities, but there are some things you should avoid.
1. Teach your children to identify dangers and avoid risks. Explain to them that just like in real life they should not talk to strangers or give personal data.
2. Explain to them that they should never meet with an online friend without first letting you know.
3. Explain to them how location services work and what the risks of sharing their location on social media are. Advise them to disable this option, unless they need their GPS to navigate.
4. Once online, always online. Discuss with your children what is appropriate to post or to share online and what isn't. Explain to them that everything they post – comments or opinions – will always be visible to everyone. The internet remembers everything. Even posts on apps such as Snapchat, which are only visible a couple of seconds can be stored and shared by someone taking a screenshot. Tell them this: “Do not post photographs on social media you wouldn't want to see in a frame at your grandmother”.
5. Explain to them that they are not anonymous or protected because they are online and that they should never write online what they wouldn't say to someone in real life. Depending on their age talk about illegal downloads, plagiarism, pornography and stalking.