Kids on social media are getting younger while the content they’re exposed to is getting wider and harder to control. Reports indicate that a third of children aged 7-9, and half of tweens aged 10-12, use social media despite the 13+ age restriction on most social media platforms.
While we’ll never be able to stop children from being social on games and apps, this exposure is costing them their mental health, attention, and focus, planting dangerous seeds in their brains that are either too difficult to uproot or too difficult to process. This often leads them to become secretive, causing feelings of shame and guilt — the results of a harmful snowball effect that never ends.
What is preventing us from solving this critical problem?
Currently, there’s no relatable teaching that bridges the generational divide — there’s a gap in education that MySociaLife, an Edtech digital citizenship, social media literacy, and online safety program, plans to fill. Parents, teachers, counsellors, and principals, most of whom are +35 years old, are unable to understand the new and complex landscape of those under 18. Even if they believe that they’re cool technologically adept enough to be in touch with what their children are experiencing, it’s simply impossible to understand a generational language because they’ve lived in a different influential environment.
There is potential for there to be a current affairs show that actually relatably attends to all the different issues teens, pre-teens, and even children now face due to their presence online, including sextortion, cybersecurity, sexuality online, privacy, critical thinking, and more. This is where OneLife comes in — a one-of-a-kind web show that presents fresh, regular, and relevant content in a language that students understand, offering the experience of experts and creators that have grown up in the same world as the students and are especially well versed in teaching important life skills.
Our founder, Dean McCoubrey, says, “OneLife is essentially not just a life skills coach but a digital life coach for the new generation that bridges the generational divide using the mechanisms of a current affairs show.”
The solution: OneLife
OneLife will take place as a 22-minute show with 6 mini news segments, such as Outrageous Untruths, Hacked Off, Explore and Excel, that can either be played by teachers during class or on students’ own devices, perfect for grades 7-11. Each episode comes with its own lesson plan and discussion points at specific points to guide teachers.
This differs from our other 8-module life skills program. Instead of 8 hours of lessons, OneLife delivers one 22-minute lesson with relevant discussions each month. Not only is this web show more accessible, and available on students’ own devices across the world, but it offers regular positive reinforcement of these essential digital life skills that are fundamentally relevant to the world our children grow up in.
Join the new age of teen education by bridging the generational divide and equipping the youth with the digital life skills relevant to the new and complex technological landscape that they are growing up in. Click here to learn more about OneLife!
