Digital Citizenship

xxDigital Citizenship and Digital Citizenship Education
Supporting children and young people to participate safely, effectively, critically and responsibly
in a world filled with social media and digital technologies is a priority for educators the world
over. The notion of digital citizenship has evolved to encompass a range of competences,
attributes and behaviours that harness the benefits and opportunities the online world affords
while building resilience to potential harms.
Young people today inhabit a world that has been transformed by digital technologies,
effortlessly enabling connectedness through social media and access to vast quantities of
information. Making sense of this hyper rich information and engaging effectively and
responsibly poses a whole set of new challenges for educators as they seek to prepare young
people as citizens, exercising their rights and participating effectively in the affairs of the
community.
Our working definition of digital citizenship places particular emphasis on the role of education,
emphasising the continuous process of lifelong learning affecting all contexts in which
educational support for digital citizenship takes place, transversally and seamlessly. The notion
of Digital Citizenship Education (DCE), therefore, views education as both the spark and as
effect of a process of citizenship. In this section, we focus on three aspects of digital citizenship
education – stakeholder roles and responsibilities; scenarios for school organisation and
preparing teachers – as the basis of an implementation strategy.
Digital Citizenship
Digital Citizenship refers to the ability to engage positively, critically and competently in the
digital environment, drawing on the skills of effective communication and creation, to practice
forms of social participation that are respectful of human rights and dignity through the
responsible use of technology.
A more elaborate definition of Digital Citizenship is:

The competent and positive engagement with digital technologies (creating, working, sharing,
socializing, investigating, playing, communicating and learning); participating actively and
responsibly (values, skills, attitudes, knowledge) in communities (local, national, global) at all
levels (political, economic, social, cultural and intercultural); being involved in a double process
of lifelong learning (in formal, informal and non-formal settings) and continuously defending
human dignity.
The Council of Europe’s Competences for Democratic Culture (Council of Europe, 2016)
provides the starting point for this approach to digital citizenship, noting that the competences
which citizens need to acquire if they are to participate effectively in a culture of democracy are
not acquired automatically but instead need to be learned and practised. As such, education
has a vital role to play in preparing young people to live as active citizens and helping them
acquire the skills and competences needed.
Digital Citizenship Education
Digital Citizenship Education is the empowerment of children through education or the

acquisition of competences for learning and active participation in digital society.
This is the knowledge, skills and understanding required for users to exercise and defend
their democratic rights and responsibilities online, and to promote and protect human rights,
democracy and the rule of law in cyberspace.
At its simplest level, it seeks to ensure that those who are not “digital natives” or do not have
opportunities to become “digital citizens”, or “digizens”, are not marginalised in future society.
With the development of relatively inexpensive technology, the “digital gap” is more likely to be
a gap in skills required to make advanced use of the technology than access to technology per
se.
In a number of countries, schools are introducing “Digital Citizenship Education” to encourage

young people to develop their online proficiency, engagement and creativity as well as an
awareness of the legal implications of their online activity.
Digital citizenship represents a new dimension of citizenship education that focuses on teaching
students to work, live and share in digital environments in a positive way
Digital Citizenship
Digital citizens can be described as individuals able to use digital tools to create, consume,
communicate and engage positively and responsibly with others.
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They understand and respect human rights, embrace diversity, and become lifelong learners in
order to keep step with evolutions in society.
Digital citizenship education is a holistic approach that strives to develop the essential skills and
knowledge needed in today’s connected world, and foster the values and attitudes that will
ensure they are used wisely and meaningfully.
Digital citizenship competences are spread across these four areas, and in total comprise 10
different domains of activity under three umbrellas: Being online, Well-being online and Rights
online.
2. Digital Citizenship Domains
The Digital Citizenship Education (DCE) Expert Group identified ten competence domains that
served as criteria to analyse and categorize the practices gathered by the multi-stakeholder
consultation report.
The expert group identified some competences areas that, somehow, recurred in order to
reach a set of competences that would be the intersection between all of them. The result of
this intersection lead to the identification of these 10 digital domains in order to match all the
dimensions considered in the other frameworks.
The ten domains are conceptually grouped in three groups with the intention to define better
the competences that Digital Citizens should develop:
The first group, Being online, includes domains that relate to those competences needed in
order to access the digital society and to freely express oneself.
The second group, Wellbeing Online, includes domains that can help the user to engage
positively in the digital society.
The third group, It is my right!, refers to competences related to the rights and responsibilities
of citizens in complex, diverse societies in a digital context.

Digital Citizenship

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xxDigital Citizenship and Digital Citizenship Education

A more elaborate definition of Digital Citizenship is:

Digital Citizenship Education

Digital Citizenship Education is the empowerment of children through education or the

In a number of countries, schools are introducing “Digital Citizenship Education” to encourage

2. Digital Citizenship Domains

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