Look in any history book - social norms shifting with generations is common. Children rebel against their parents, create a conflict, and eventually transform cultural norms. However, the societal shift for children in developing countries, like India and China, is different than the experience of youth in the Western world.

Specifically, the newly industrialized population of India is comprised of over 35% children under the age of 15. Through the Web, these children are connected to an unfathomable amount of information and opportunity compared to previous generations. The increased opportunities, however, also produce an influx of online traps (see Wikipedia as an example of this idea: the more value, the more clutter). Child pornography, gambling, identity theft, etc inevitably leech to the valuable assets of the Web.

As a response, Google’s Indian headquarter launched “Be NetSmart” to educate parents, teachers, and students on how to safely incorporate the Web into daily life. Google India and the Mumbai police initiated the campaign with an interactive presentation on topics such as downloading content, posting pictures, chatting, and web identity. Lets hope this has better success than the DARE campaign in the United States.

Link to [Be NetSmart Press Release]

Link to [Google Public Policy Blog]