Genevieve Gorder, star of TLC’s Trading Spaces and Netflix’s Stay Here, has opted to getting the makeover of the century from STEM Kids NYC by letting them track her online presence and digital footprint in this video, made with the help of Allstate; learning about our digital footprint is not only important for adults, but is also important when considering children’s online safety.
Technology is quickly evolving, but that doesn’t mean that our safety knowledge can’t be up-to-date as well, especially since adults are not the only ones who use technology. Children are also immersed in it at home and even at school: “They are all on their iPads and phones, even before they can form full paragraphs of words—they are vulnerable,” Gorder says. “A kid can click on it and be taken on the dark side very quickly. It is something as a parent that we are learning every day because we didn’t grow up with this tech …Imagine having the world in the palm of your hand and you are 8.”
That is why Gorder is excited to work with Allstate and STEM Kids NYC, an organization dedicated to building STEM skills among young scholars and showing its importance in the world. This group of kids gives Gorder her “digital safety makeover” in this video to support coding and promote digital safety. For every like, share, or comment, from now until November 14, Allstate will be donating $1 toward STEM Kids NYC—up to $50,000—to support tech safety and coding. “I think that Allstate is bringing awareness that this is something that we need to pay attention to, and how we go about doing that in each avenue,” Gorder says. “[In the video,] the kids are pretty much going to dissect me today, my life, and how I am doing, what am I doing wrong, and what am I doing well.”
As a busy parent and professional designer, Gorder can’t tackle her digital safety alone. That is why she believes it is necessary to invest in essential protective systems that will help keep herself and family safe when online. “It is like having an alarm in your house so that you are not having to watch every window and door all night, right? It is too much, you can’t do it all, so I think that it is investing in partners who just provide security for that,” Gorder comments.
One of the first steps that needs to be accomplished is to educate parents on digital safety. “Adults need to learn first how to protect their own assets and get the information. Once we have the information, we can set up the barriers for everybody and everything in the house. But the kids should know what is at stake too. It is important to have a little bit of awareness there and not to be in the dark,” explains Gorder. “So how to do it? How to pioneer a kind of a safety net around it is kind of up to my generation. But there is a little bit of fear that needs to be instilled, in my opinion, to protect themselves but also having all sorts of parental locks on every device in the house.”
Another great tool that parents can use to be in the know is Hidden World of Data. This website gives you detailed information on how to manage your digital usage, it even offers a quiz to see the size of your digital footprint. Becoming more aware of what we do on the web and the measures we take will help protect our children in these darker areas online: “It’s like someone crossing the street or walking alone down the sidewalk at night when it’s too late,” Gorder says. The internet is one more place that many of us overlook when we think about safety. That is why it is important today to be educated on digital safety so that you can be safe as a whole family.
For more information about digital safety, visit hiddenworldofdata.com. You can also learn more about Genevieve Gorder and her work by checking out her profile.
