Curriculum / Social Media: Dangers & Ethics / module 3

Your Digital Footprint and Online Ethics

By OSH Founding Team✓ Verified by OSH Review Panel

Everything posted is permanent and public in principle; the learner audits real footprints and writes their own code of online conduct.

Parent guide (what to say and do)

Search a few public figures together and observe how old posts resurface in their lives. Principle one: the internet does not forget, screenshots outlive deletions. Principle two: the same ethics apply online as offline; anonymity is not permission. Discuss backbiting, mockery, and pile-ons through the lens of the family's values: would you say this in the person's living room? Close with the learner drafting a personal code of conduct they would be willing to publish.

Learning material

Footprint audit worksheet
Code of conduct template (platform library)

Practical exercises and activities

Audit: review the learner's own accounts (or a hypothetical) against the would-I-publish-this test. Case debate: one real story of an old post causing real consequences, argued from both sides. Draft: the personal code, signed and kept.

Materials required

Supervised internet access for the audit session.

Assessment checkpoints

Learner completes the audit, argues the case debate coherently, and produces a signed personal code of conduct.

Learn with AI

Ready-made prompts for this module. Copy one into your AI assistant and it becomes a patient tutor that follows the OSH method: no lecturing, no rote learning, hands-on activities included.

For the student

A tutor that teaches this module step by step, asks questions, and never just gives answers.

For the parent or teacher

A coach that helps you prepare, deliver, and troubleshoot this lesson.

How to set this up in ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude

ChatGPT: Open ChatGPT → press your profile → My GPTs → Create a GPT → paste the prompt into Instructions → name it after the module → save for repeated lessons. Or simply paste the prompt at the start of a new chat.

Gemini: Open Gemini → Gems panel → New Gem → paste the prompt into the instructions box → name it after the module → save. The Gem stays available for every study session.

Claude: Open Claude → create a Project (or a Skill in Claude Code) → paste the prompt into the project instructions → every conversation in that project becomes a tutoring session for this module.

Safety note: children under 13 should use AI assistants together with a parent, and account age rules of each platform apply.

This module is part of the open OSH curriculum, licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0. Print it, adapt it, share it.