Be Internet Awesome


Google + YouTube’s Resources for Families

Every family’s relationship with technology is unique. Google and YouTube provide products and resources to choose the right experience for your family and build healthy digital habits. Whether you’re looking to help your child safely explore the online world, or want to guide them to high-quality content on YouTube, our tailored product experiences empower kids and teens to watch, listen, play, learn, create, and communicate online. 

This page provides more information on our solutions for families and provides you with the tools to begin having conversations with your kids on how to safely and smartly navigate the internet and explore the world of online video.

Be Internet Awesome Event



Google’s Solutions for Families

 

About Google’s Be Internet Awesome Program & Workshop

Be Internet Awesome is a program from Google, designed to teach kids the fundamentals of digital citizenship and safety so they can explore the online world with confidence.

Below, Google has provided online resources for PTAs to host their own Be Internet Awesome Workshop. The goal of a Be Internet Awesome Workshop is to create an interactive event where parents and caregivers engage with one another in meaningful peer-to-peer conversations about raising children in an online world. Using the Be Internet Awesome Family Guides, provided presentations and facilitator guides, your PTA will help parents create a shared understanding of what it means to Be Internet Smart, Alert, Strong, Kind and Brave.

It’s most appropriate for elementary and middle school PTAs but would also be a great program for upper grade PTSAs to host in partnership with other schools in their area, for older students to log volunteer hours. To plan and host a Be Internet Awesome Workshop, please review the materials in the Planning Toolkit below.

Help Keep Your Family Safer Online with Google Family Link

Family Link is a parental controls experience that lets you decide what’s best for your family so you can help keep them safer online. With easy to use tools and resources, you can understand how your child is spending time on their device, set content restrictions, see their location, manage privacy settings, and more.

Be Internet Awesome Workshop Planning Toolkit

If you’re interested in hosting a Be Internet Awesome Workshop at your school, PTA Connected provides the necessary tools– including flyers, volunteer forms, an event planning overview, email templates, sample agendas, evaluation forms and much more– to help you plan and execute an engaging event.

Workshop Photo 01

Workshop Photo 02

Workshop Photo 03



YouTube’s Solutions for Families

 

YouTube believes that kids can discover new interests and foster a sense of belonging through online video. And they also believe parents know what’s best for their child. So understanding your choices and knowing the protections in place are a good first step in deciding what’s right for your family.

YouTube’s Solutions for Families

Families with younger kids

YouTube offers a separate app made just for kids called YouTube Kids that’s seen a number of updates. These include quality principles that help define what videos are approved to be in the app’s age-based content settings, an option to handpick videos, and even share more videos from YouTube into YouTube Kids.

Families with tweens

If you’ve decided your tween is ready for YouTube, you can grant them access with a supervised Google Account. This parent-controlled experience comes with content settings for pre-teens and older, digital wellbeing defaults, channel blocking, and more. Read through YouTube’s parent guide for this experience before getting started.

Families with teens

YouTube automatically age-restricts content that may be unsuitable for < 18 year olds, and launched new safety and wellbeing protections last year, like automatically turning “take a break” and bedtime reminders on.


Learn More



Google + YouTube Virtual Workshops

 

Google and YouTube would love to host these digital safety and wellbeing workshops at your school! But, since they can’t visit everyone, they’ve recorded virtual presentations on their solutions and resources for families that your school, home, or classroom can leverage at any time. Check out their virtual workshops below.

Be Internet Awesome’s #ItsCoolToBeKind Workshop
The National PTA and Google teamed up for National Bullying Prevention Month to share tools and resources for families to help teach kids to be safer, smart, and kind online with the Be Internet Awesome program.

Google Kids Space Workshop
Google created this workshop for parents to share tools for PTA parents that help manage kids’ screen time, from Family Link parental controls to finding quality content on the Google Kids Space tablets. 



Parent Resources

 

Interested in learning more about the products, program, tools, and resources Google and YouTube have outlined on this site? Please refer to the links and downloadable resources below to understand these solutions for families in greater detail.

Google Resources

  • Be Internet Awesome [ES]: Be Internet Awesome teaches kids the fundamentals of digital citizenship and safety so they can explore the online world with confidence. The website includes curriculum for teachers, resources and guides for parents, and a free web-based game for the kids. 
  • Interland: Interland is an adventure-packed online game that puts the key lessons of digital citizenship and safety into hands-on practice.
  • Family Link: Google Family Link is a parental controls app that provides parents with tools and resources to help keep their family safer online. Family Link allows you to understand how your child is spending time on their device, share location, manage privacy settings, and more.

YouTube Resources

Check out PTA.org/Connected throughout the year for new and exciting programs and resources from National PTA to help your family grow in the digital space.





Be Internet Awesome family workshops are a part of the PTA Connected initiative made possible with the support of a founding sponsorship from Google. National PTA does not endorse any commercial entity, product, or service. No endorsement of Google is implied.

Google

YouTube

Back to Top