Students may look digitally fluent, but knowing how to use technology isn’t the same as knowing how to use it wisely. This piece explores why digital literacy education matters—and how teachers can guide students toward empathy, critical thinking, and ethical decision-making online.

Roblox is one of the world’s largest online gaming platforms, with more than 200 million monthly users, many of them children under 13. Unlike traditional games, Roblox Corporation doesn’t create most of the games; instead, it provides the platform and tools for users (including minors) to build “experiences” that other players join (user-generated content).

Over the past month, use of Grok—an AI image-generation tool developed by xAI and integrated into X—has surged, with the tool being used to manipulate existing images on Grok to depict nearly nude or skimpy-bikini-clad women and minors. In my class students discuss the real world harms.

In a world where search engines and artificial intelligence are just a click away, students often face a hidden challenge. It’s easy to rely on quick answers without understanding how information is found, ranked, or created. This can lead to trusting information that looks confident but may be biased, incomplete, or even false. To navigate this complex landscape, students need more than just access to information—they need information literacy.

Our YouTube channel, the Cyber Civics Student Hub, offers a rich resource of videos to teach students anything from how to keep safe from cyberbullying to recognizing misinformation.