Give a man a fish, feed him for a day…teach a man to fish, feed him for life.
Almost everybody knows this ancient Chinese proverb. It is a popular and heavily used - and not just because it features clever alliteration and subtle variation within repetition. It’s a popular proverb because it beautifully articulates a basic truth. In the long term, we best serve people by giving them the skills to look after themselves.
The need to eat does not go away, and neither will the information age. I think we can now safely say that the information age is not “just a phase”. We won’t wake up tomorrow and find that nobody owns a mobile phone or that the internet no longer connects us.
Just as these technologies will not go away, nor will the ways they have altered the social and political landscape. People are more connected. Information flows more freely. The whole world got on the online train, including people we’d rather not travel with – and they aren’t getting off.
There’s a good reason the proverb does not say, “give a man a fishing rod”. It is important that we accept the limitations of technology we use to protect young people online. Products such as parental controls and filters allow us to erect temporary barriers, but eventually everybody will have to learn to operate in the information age.
It is therefore our duty to prepare young people to operate in this new environment. We need to provide them with skills to navigate this sea of information and connectedness that they will grow up in. We need to ensure that they know who and what they can trust online.
To achieve that, we’re going to need young people to trust us. It is with some despair that I read information about new products that enable parents to covertly monitor their children. Surely covert monitoring is a relationship time bomb. When the time comes to act on the information covertly gathered, the realisation that they have been spied on by their own parents will be extremely damaging.
The process of parents empowering their children to grow and face challenges is older than the proverb this piece opened with. I accept that the information age has really complicated the process, but I don’t accept that the parent/child relationship has fundamentally changed.
I know the updated proverb doesn’t have the same ring to it but…
If we block, monitor, and survey our children, we may keep them safe today – but if we teach them critical thinking skills, we’ll protect them for life.
Merry Christmas and a happy and safe new year from the team at NetSafe.
