At some point, your kid is going to have a digital device in their hands or on their desk. There’s practically no avoiding it now, unless you intend to fully shut your home off from technology. It brings about a whole host of questions about how to manage their own daily habits, the types of content they encounter, and how they communicate and behave online. Here, we’re going to look at how to start having some of the conversations you need to, as well as the tools that can help you manage it all.
Start Establishing Some Boundaries
First and foremost, setting clear boundaries and expectations can help avoid some conflicts. This can include setting tech-free time, such as during meals and family activities, or an hour before bed, to help ensure they maintain their connection to their family and the world around them. You might also have general screen-time limits to make sure that they’re never spending too much time per day on a given device. Consistency is important, and demonstrating that you can follow those rules allows you to lead by example.
Don’t Throw Them Into The Deep End
It doesn’t have to be the case that you give a child a phone or tablet, then simply let them go on to use it as and when they see fit. Smart tech choices can help you rein in usage without having to constantly supervise them. For instance, you can use cheap mobile plans for prepaid phones and devices with built-in parental controls to naturally cap their usage. It also helps to control their bills, which is important when you’re the one paying for all of it.
Stay Involved In What They Access
While parental controls can limit a lot of what your child is able to access, it’s still easy for many to slip through the cracks, to access things that aren’t fully regulated, or even to work around those limits. As such, you should ask them to share what they use their phone for, and check their app, browsing, and social media history to make sure that they’re not exposed to inappropriate content, advertising, or influencers that might have too much of a sway on them. Checking browsing history or account activity should be done transparently, not secretly, so that you can actually talk about the things you don’t want them to engage with, rather than sweep them under the rug.
Talk Digital Literacy With Them
Take the time to address topics relevant to the kind of online activities they engage with. Teaching them to recognize scams and ads can ensure that they’re developing a keen sense of skepticism about what they see online. Talk about data privacy, safety (especially when engaging with others online), misinformation, and more, as well as social media etiquette they should follow when they’re able to start using it. Although more and more data suggest that children should be kept away from social media until they’re at least 16.
Technology is going to continue to evolve, alongside its impact on our families. As such, it’s important for parents to keep up to do, and to talk with their kids often about how to interface with it to ensure mindful and sensible use.
