Share Awesome Contest
Awesomeness is all around us. At least that’s how it appeared during a recent #ShareAwesome Twitter party. For an hour, 140 character stories of kindness to the homeless, to people in hospitals and neighbors in need, to kids left out on the fringe pored into the twitterverse – some accompanied by pictures, one more heartening than the next. Judging by the speed at which she was retweeted @caraleeball said it best when she tweeted, “so hate to see this party end…love talking about kindness and caring #shareawesome.”
What’s the fuss all about? Believe it or not, digital safety. That and the fact that kids and teens do awesome things on a daily basis – and that they should be able to tell their friends, BFFs and the rest of their social networks in a safe way that parents approve of.
That, in a nutshell, is the two aim behind #ShareAwesome, a new program from the National PTA in cooperation with LifeLock. The underlying goal is digital safety and equipping teens, age 13 to 17, with the tools they need to interact safely online and off.
As a mom, this seems to me a necessary – and important – campaign. I didn’t grow up online, but my kids did. And I’ve watched, and occasionally worried, as they started developing online relationships and communicating with their friends using technology I didn’t always understand. It’s happening earlier and earlier. Kids start forming online relationships as early as age 8. By 10, they’re texting. And by 13, they have social network accounts of their own. It’s our job as parents to help them stay safe.
To assess whether or not you’re doing a good job, visit the program website at shareawesomenow.org. There, you can answer a series of questions about the kind of conversations you’re currently having with your kids, the sort of monitoring you do on a regular basis and so on. Based on your answers, the site will tell you whether you’ve already got this mastered or have room for improvement. If it’s the latter, don’t worry, it’ll provide some tips for that as well. For example? How and what makes a strong password. (Hint: it’s not 123456.) And how and why you should be setting rules regarding your child’s use of online and mobile platforms. Finally, there are some helpful conversation starters you can use to get the dialogue rolling around the dinner table. Try: What’s okay to share? How do you shop wisely? And (my favorite) what’s up with all the drama?
Whichever way your answers shake out, if your kids are awesome (of course they are) they can compete for a $2500 scholarship and Microsoft Surface Pro 3, by entering their awesome moment into a contest on ShareAwesomeNow.org. The contest runs through November 30, 2014.
