Back in 2004 when Hector and his friends were becoming a reality, we were firmly committed to the development of cybersafety (or online safety) education for children 4-10 years old.   As our understanding changed of how young children actually were when they became active ICT users, we re-defined our target age group to 2-9 years of age.  Our notion of what education they need as they begin a lifelong use of ICT has also evolved.

When educating 2-9 year olds about the online world, we want to lay a solid foundation with our learning objectives.  But we realise those learning objectives need to be about more than just pure cybersafety or security knowledge.  They need elements of other disciplines as well – media literacy, information literacy and digital literacy.  Yet to best lay that holistic foundation of basic concepts, these traditionally distinct areas of learning must no longer be separate.

What term could unite them?  At Hector’s World, we think it is ‘digital citizenship’.  Not only can this term embrace all of the necessary learning areas, but it can additionally put a positive emphasis on the values of being a citizen – respecting yourself, respecting others, caring for yourself and caring for your community.  These are powerful and important messages for young children as they make their way in the online world.