Digital Literacy · Families, seniors, and newcomers
Safer online, as a family.
Four sessions where families learn to handle scams, screen time, social media, and AI together. You leave with a family safety plan you wrote yourselves.
The program
Everyone learns at the same table.
Families build safe habits online together, on the phones they already own.
This course is for everyone. You do not need any technical experience, or even to feel comfortable with technology yet. We explain each topic in plain language, answer every question, and help hands-on in every session.
- Sessions
- Four, 90 minutes each
- Cadence
- Weekly, over one month
- Group size
- 8 to 10 families
- Experience needed
- None at all
What we cover
Four sessions, one family safety plan.
Each session adds a page to your family’s safety plan, and you finish it together in the last one. We choose the topics with your organization, to fit the ages and needs in the room.
Session 1: Your Phone, Your Accounts, Your Settings
Your plan, page one: the family’s accounts, who to call for help, and the settings you chose.
- Setting up each phone so it suits the person holding it: text size, voice control, read-aloud, and other accessibility settings
- Protecting your accounts: strong passwords, a password manager, and a way back in when a password is forgotten or a phone is lost
- Backing up your photos, and listing the family’s accounts and who can get into each one
- Turning on safety settings: emergency contacts, emergency medical information, and location sharing (and when to turn it off)
- Using parental controls: Screen Time on iPhone, Family Link on Android, YouTube Kids, and the messaging apps your kids use
- Making video calls, so grandparents and family far away are one tap from the kitchen table
Session 2: Spot the Fake
Your plan, page two: the three steps, and a family code word for “is this really you?”
- Knowing the scams going around now: fake texts and emails, scam calls, fake websites, marketplace and e-transfer scams, and AI-made voices and pictures
- Hearing a cloned voice and seeing a fake picture made right in the room, with a volunteer’s permission
- Checking a link, a caller, a website, and a picture before you trust it
- Finding the subscriptions and in-app purchases already running on the family’s phones, and reading what a “free trial” really signs you up for
- Learning our three-step plan for any message, call, or website that feels off: Stop. Talk to someone you trust. Check it the safe way.
Session 3: Screen Time and What We Watch
Your plan, page three: your screen time rules, and what your family will share.
- Understanding why your feed shows you what it shows you, and how to shape it so what you watch is good for you
- Agreeing on screen time and age guidelines that fit your household, with the tools already built into your phones
- Building healthy habits: sleep, meals, and time away from screens
- Staying safe on social media and in games: cyberbullying, strangers in game chat, bots and fake accounts, and body image
- Spotting misinformation and deepfakes before you share them
- Talking with your teens, if you have them, about grooming, sextortion (when someone threatens to share a private photo unless you pay), consent, what the law says about sharing photos, and how to help a friend
Session 4: AI and Your Family Safety Plan
Your plan, finished and signed by everyone at the table.
- Understanding what an AI chatbot is actually doing when it answers, what it is good at, and where it gets things wrong
- Knowing where your personal information goes when you post, search, or type into a chatbot, and what AI companion apps mean for kids
- Talking through your family’s concerns about AI: what is known, what is still argued about, and what you can do
- Knowing where to get help: local, community, online, and national services, from reporting a scam to talking to someone
- Writing and signing the plan together
Some risks land harder on some people: being tracked by a partner, being outed or harassed online, or being singled out by scammers as an Elder. We plan the examples for the people in your room, including women, 2SLGBTQ+ people, neurodivergent people, and children. With Indigenous communities, that includes community protocols for photos and stories, and data sovereignty.
Outcomes
What your family leaves with.
- A written family safety plan, made and signed together
- Phones set up for each person, with passwords, recovery, safety, and parental settings in place
- A three-step plan for scams, and practice spotting a fake text, call, website, and picture
- Screen time rules and healthy habits your family agreed on together
- A plain understanding of how feeds and AI work, and where your information goes
- A clear idea of where to go for help, from reporting a scam to free tech support
What's included
What comes with the course.
A Planning Conversation
With your organization before we start, so the examples fit your community.
Workbook, Cards, and Prompts
A family workbook, a large-print take-home card for each session, and a family-safe prompt pack for trying AI at home.
A Local Help Sheet
Free tech help, low-cost internet and devices, and where to report a scam.
Follow-Up That Keeps Going
A short message after each session, and a check-in six weeks after the last one.
A Report for Your Funder
A summary report for your organization and your funder.
People You Already Trust
A cultural practitioner, Elder, interpreter, or support person alongside us, where you want one, planned into the budget from the first conversation.
Who it's for
Every generation in the room.
Technology decisions in a household are shared: a grandparent’s phone, a parent’s accounts, a child’s apps. So everyone learns together, and everyone has a say in the plan.
Families
Seniors
Newcomers
Teens
- Families with children aged about 8 and up, including grandparents and other caregivers
- People with little or no experience with technology, where one smartphone per family is enough
- Families who want to understand AI before deciding what to do about it
This is not a coding class, and we will never push anyone to use more technology. If your family decides to use less of something, that is a good result.
The same four sessions, for other groups.
Seniors and Elders
Phone and text scams, video calls, health portals, and online banking, plus choosing a device, using everyday apps safely, and knowing where to get support. A slower pace, more repetition, and larger print.
Newcomers
For people new to technology: government and settlement services online, setting up accounts, everyday apps like transit and banking, and translation tools, with interpretation planned into the budget.
Families With Teens
More time on social media, games, and the algorithm, cyberbullying and grooming, sextortion and sharing photos, body image, screen habits that are hard to break, and how to help a friend.
A Single Workshop
Session two (spotting scams) or session three (screen time) on its own, 90 minutes to half a day.
Book this course.
Book it for your group or your organization. We bring the course to your space, and only your name, email, and a short message are required.
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For organizations
This course is built to run with nonprofits and community organizations. We help you find the funding and plan the sessions with your team.
Questions.
Do we need any experience?
No. If you can tap to pay or send a text, you already have what this course builds on.
What is the family safety plan?
A short written plan your family makes over the four sessions: your accounts and who to call, your phone settings, what you do when a scam arrives, your screen time rules, and what you share. Everyone signs it.
Can kids and adults really learn together?
Yes, that is how the course works. Kids often teach the taps and adults bring the judgment. Children under 13 work alongside an adult, on the adult’s account.
How do you handle the teen topics?
A parent or caregiver stays in the room for the conversation about grooming and sharing photos. Your organization’s child-protection policy applies, and we agree on a named person a young person can talk to afterwards.
What if my family has doubts about AI?
That is welcome here. We lay out what is known and what is still argued about, and your family decides what to use.
Do we need our own devices?
One phone per family is enough. When the course runs with an organization, loaner devices can be written into the program budget.
Who teaches it?
Max Harris, who founded Rize, alongside the cultural practitioners, Elders, or support people your organization chooses. Max has more than twenty years of experience with digital systems and teaches adults and families with no technical background.
Can our organization book this for a group?
Yes. Tell us who you serve and roughly how many families, and we will plan the four sessions with your team.