ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the idea of young children's 'internet cognition' as a way of beginning to comprehend how children understand the internet. And how these understandings can be fostered in early childhood settings as an appropriate basis for engaging children in internet safety and the learning of digital literacies. The chapter focuses on two pertinent concerns, cyber-safety and digital literacies. Touch-screen and internet-enabled mobile devices have made access to the internet prevalent for very young children. For the first time in the history of the internet, infants, toddlers and preschoolers are creating digital footprints and actively engaging in online activity. This raises a consequent need in early childhood education for teachers to engage children in learning about internet safety and digital literacies. A key aspect of effective internet safety and digital literacy learning in the early years may be associated with the extent to which young children understand the internet according to their social and cultural contexts.
