Digital reputation
What is digital reputation?
All internet users will have a digital or online reputation. Essentially, this digital reputation is the opinion that others hold about the user. People aspire to have a positive online reputation. Students should be encouraged to think about their digital reputation when interacting online.
Digital reputations are developed over time and are based on the individual’s ‘digital footprint’. This footprint is a collection of the traces left by someone's activity in a digital environment—an accumulation of personal information, content shared or other data which can be accessed by other internet users.
Digital footprints
Digital footprints can be either passive or active.
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A passive digital footprint is created when data is collected about an action without any client initiation. At a low level, this could be someone’s name and contact details. It may also include photos, public postings and, in some cases, public records.
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An active digital footprint is created when personal data is released deliberately by a user who wishes to share information about themselves, such as deliberate postings or sharing information in the public and semi-public areas on the internet.
‘Digital footprint’ can also refer to the size of a person’s online presence—the number of individuals they interact with on social networking sites.
For their privacy and safety, it’s important for students and teachers alike to be aware of where their personal data is available on the internet given the, at times, unknown audience and the potential for it to be permanently accessible.
For many children and young people, who believe that that they are anonymous when online and that their personal identifying information is invisible, education about digital reputation and their digital footprint is an important safety measure. They should be aware of the many ways in which their personal information, and information about their online activities, can be collected without them knowing, or consenting to this happening.
Creating online identities is the norm in many of the online environments that children and young people use, including public social networking sites, password protected profile sites and for general communications, such as email. Each environment provides different opportunities to share personal information with friends, friends of friends, strangers and through web forms. Children and young people are often unaware that private content may become visible and accessible to an unknown audience both now and, given the permanency of information on the internet, potentially the future.
For more information about digital reputation, see the Digital reputation page in the Parents section of this website.