Internet Safety: Technology and Your Kids

Think about the world we live in today. 

Kids use media and technology to communicate with their friends, play games, express themselves, and connect with the world. The reality is that kids spend far more time interacting with media than they do at school or with their parents. The average eight to 18-year-old spends seven and a half hours a day online, watching TV and movies, playing games, and listening to music.

Kids no longer make a distinction between the "real" world and the "virtual" one. It’s all pretty much one and the same to them. Here are some things to think about...

It's 20 years after the birth of the World Wide Web. I remember the first time I used the internet, it was my 2nd year of college in Minnesota. It was a life changing experience because I could get sports scores without waiting to watch ESPN SportsCenter! Okay, so 14 years after the launch of Google Search, nine years after the start of the first social networking site Myspace, seven years after the first YouTube video, five years after the introduction of the first touch-screen smartphone, three years after the opening of the first "app" store, and just two and a half years after the first iPad sale — the media world that children are growing up in is changing at lightning speed.

Nine-month-olds spend nearly an hour a day watching television or DVDs, five-year-olds are begging to play with their parents’ iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches, Nintendo DS’s the list goes on, seven-year-olds are sitting down in front of a computer several times a week to play games, do homework, or check out how their avatars are doing in their favorite virtual worlds. And its not going away; in fact, as each year passes technology is being weaved into everyday life more and more, especially for children. They understand technology quicker, they use it faster, and it ALL makes sense to them!

So as a parent, your head should be spinning by now -- I know mine is -- and that is exactly why I have chosen to make it my goal to educate parents out there on raising digital citizens. What I mean is that all of us parents older than 30 are digital immigrants. Our children on the other hand are Digital NATIVES! When we were young, we woke up and saw our parents reading the newspaper. Our children see us checking email on an electronic device, its completely normal for them. This has created a huge Digital divide between us parents and our children.

This digital divide is a challenge for parents because we use the internet very differently from our children. We pay bills online, reseach stuff, "surf the web" and use email. Our children see "surfing the web" as something old people do. They want interactivity, games, chat communities, they develop their own digital footprints early and are willing to engage in boundray-pushing behavior online for recognition (Followers, Friends, Likes and such).

This is where we come in as parents to communicate the dangers of the internet, it is increasingly important that children understand the online safety issues and know how to respond to the potential dangers when they are using the Internet.

What do we do when our eight-year-old knows more about the internet then we do? How do we start to raise digital citizens if we are not entirely sure what that means?

First, parents need to start getting involved immediately with what your children are doing online. It's extremely important for us to validate the skills our children are using in accessing the Internet. This means you have to start teaching yourself about what technologies they use. Remember, when you were a kid and you had to teach something to your parents that they knew nothing about, it was usually so frustrating! So, If your child is a wiz at using some sort of technology that you can’t understand, GOOGLE it and read about it! Think about it. If you take time to learn a little about the technology your children use they will know you're interested and be a little more patient.

If you have questions or would like me to come and present to your group about internet safety and your children, please contact me at marciadanza@gmail.com.