Formation of Safe Behaviour of Primary School Students in the Digital Space

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of the formation of safe behaviour of primary school students in the digital space. Primary school age is transitional in mastering the digital space. This is due to the age-related psychological characteristics of primary school students (qualitative changes in cognitive development; actualization of verbal and logical thinking; semantic memory, voluntary attention; the need for play, movement and external impressions, «clip thinking», etc.). Online risks are characterized as the following: communicative, content, consumer, technical, and internet addiction. It is emphasized that collision with communicative risks is the most serious issue for children compared to other types of online risks because it more often causes them tangible harm. The positive and negative aspects of the activities of primary school students in the digital space are determined. Positive aspects include the following: development of logical, operational thinking; the ability to predict; satisfaction of children’s need for external impressions; the ability to manage information flows; formation of creative thinking, etc. Negative aspects of activities of primary school students in the digital space are the following: problems with physical and mental health; inability to communicate with peers and adults in real life; decrease in empathy; the danger of virtual temptation of a child; loss of interest in learning, reading, manual labour; inability to distinguish virtual reality from real reality, etc. Educational tasks are singled out, the implementation of which will contribute to increasing the safety of primary school students in the digital space: combining the efforts of the state, parents and teachers to implement more effective mechanisms for the modernization of content for children in social networks; increasing the level of teachers’ digital competence; formation of parents’ digital competence; establishment of partnership interaction between parents and teachers, which is as a mutually coordinated and responsible activity based on dialogue, equal rights, voluntary participation and mutual interest of the parties; education of students’ responsible attitude towards their activities on the Internet. The conducted research does not cover all aspects of the raised multifaceted problem of the formation of safe behaviour of primary school students in the digital space. Further scientific research can be aimed at developing criteria, indicators and identifying the levels of formation of safe behaviour of primary school students in the digital space. Key words: safe behaviour, primary school students, digital space, online risks, positive and negative aspects of a child’s activity in the digital space.