We live in an age driven by technology. Children are more technologically advanced than ever before. My four year old is no exception. He can work an Ipad much better than I can. He knows how to get into all his favorite games, how to get to the Dinsey Channel, and just about anything else he sets his mind to. I think kids these days are just born that way. While technology can be an amazing educational tool for our children, it can also be a very dangerous place, as we all know. More and more predators are out there preying on unsuspecting children. As parents we have got to take action to keep our kids protected. That means we are going to have to set up boundaries for them. As inconvenient as it is, it is our priority to protect them in whatever way possible. Because of this you may not be your child’s best friend for a while, especially if you have a teenager. In case you haven’t figured this out already, teenagers don’t love boundaries, but they are there for their benefit, whether they see that now or not.
When it comes to social networking monitor what your children and their friends are saying on their page. Kids are getting smarter and have figured out how to block their parents from seeing what they’re posting. This is why it is important to have access to your children’s accounts. This isn’t for us to go spying on them. The truth is most of us aren’t really that interested in who likes who and which celebrity they are in love with that week, but we are interested in what is going on in their lives and who they are associating with. Keep the computer in an open area of your home. That way they know you are right there and monitoring what they are doing. That doesn’t mean you need to sit right over their shoulder while they are working on their English homework, but that does make it a lot harder to hide things if there is a risk of Mom walking past at any moment. Set clear rules with your child about chat rooms and other such places. Remind them that they should never send out personal information over the computer. Set very clear expectations for them. Some parents feel the computer shouldn’t even be on if they aren’t home, which may mean taking the cord with you to work.
Now we have the added dilemma with our children’s smart phones. I’m still in shock that all these sixth graders have nicer phones than I do, but they do, which typically comes with the added benefit of Wi-Fi. If this is the case, you may need to be monitoring their phones as well, you are the one paying for it, which means like it or not they get to play by your rules. If that means turning their phone in at the end of the night, then so be it. Find what works for you and your child. It isn’t always easy, but in the end, it’s much better to know your child is safe and protected because you took the extra step to make sure of it.