Teacher Center » Digital Parenting: Protecting and Empowering Kids

• Generation Gap. Today's parents face a generation gap with their kids. While learning the latest technology is second nature to kids, parents often find it difficult to keep up.

• Parenting Styles. Parents feel conflicted because of the unique combination of benefits and drawbacks of digital technology. On the one hand, they are excited about the benefits, particularly surrounding learning. On the other, parents are concerned about the risks of online communication and want to keep their kids safe.

• Relationships. Social life and relationships are changing in digital life because the lines between the digital and real worlds are blurring. Digital media can isolate us or bring us together, affecting relationships with peers and between parents and children.

Online Resources for Parents include:
WATCH: Check out the featured videos and activities that explore the challenges of parenting in a digital age.
PLAY: Assess your digital parenting style with a quiz.
RATE: Where Do You Stand? Rate your level of agreement with statements about monitoring kids online.
READ: Learn more through informative one-page readings.
COMMENT: What do you think? Share an idea on how you keep tabs on your kids' online activities.

Learning Objectives:

In this workshop, parents will:

• Understand the difference between protecting and empowering children in their use of digital media
• Reflect on how digital media affects relationships between children and parents
• Gain awareness of the differences in children's and parents' reports about digital media use
• Understand how parents and kids view online relationships, privacy and identity
• Gain knowledge of parenting strategies to guide children in the use of digital media and technology

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Where Do You Stand? Monitoring Your Kids' Online Life

The Password Battle looks at the tensions between a parent and children relating to online passwords.

After watching the video, rate your level of agreement with these statements. Click to see how others responded. Share your opinions by posting a comment.

QUIZ Your Digital Parenting Style: Protecting and Empowering Kids

Learning Objective: Explore your parenting strategies for helping your kids navigate their use of digital media.

Procedure: Answer the following questions to get a glimpse into your digital parenting style.

First, choose your child's age range.

Learn More. Review Digital Parenting to reflect on your parenting style and discuss these issues with your children, your family and your friends.

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QUIZ Parental Perceptions: Distorted or Reality?

Learning Objective: Find out how much you know about digital media, parents and kids -- and get some advice.

Procedure: Take this quiz to learn about and reflect on information about kids' and parents' Internet use.

Learn More. Review Talk Tips: Digital Media and Kids for a list of effective approaches to promote effective communication about digital media.

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Talk Tips: Digital Media and Kids

It can be challenging for parents to talk with kids about digital technology. To kids, digital media are a part of life ‐‐there's little difference between the "digital world" and "real world." But it is important that parents get involved in kids' digital media use, talk with them about it and set house rules early on. Consider the following "talk tips" with your kids and teens.

"How Will This Be Used?"
Whenever new media technology is brought into the home, it can be exciting. But parents should consider its use before it's taken out of the packaging. Where will it be placed? If it's wireless (laptop, cell phone, handheld game), where is it allowed and not allowed? Who can use it, when, where and how often? Most digital technologies offer parental controls and limits, so be sure to set these up right away. Digital media can change the home environment, so before your kids play with their new "toys," discuss expectations about their uses.

"What Are You Doing?"
Many adults aren't all that interested in kids' media. But kids truly enjoy sharing the media they love with parents. Show curiosity. Ask your kids to share what they're doing, playing, watching, reading or listening to. Take a couple of minutes to see what Web sites they like to visit and games they like to play. Getting involved in their digital media landscape shows them that you are interested in and paying attention to their lives.

"I Don't Like That!" and "I Like That!"
Parents don't need to wait until a negative incident happens to discuss the use of digital media with kids. Tell kids things that you don't like--and what you like--about what they're doing (or what they might be doing). Oftentimes parents focus on the negative, so be sure to tell your kids the ways that you'd like them to use digital technology, and praise them when you see them doing something you like.

"House Rules"
According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation study, only about three in ten young people say they have rules about how much time they can spend watching TV (28%), playing video games (30%), or using the computer (36%). But instituting house rules about media is a good way to share your expectations with your children. Perhaps time limits are important to you. Perhaps you don't want media interruptions during dinner. You and your kids can create the rules together, and even post them on the fridge or near the computer. You can always refer back to the house rules if kids are pushing the limits.

"Show Me How"
Kids love to teach adults about digital technology. They enjoy showing their "tech-savviness" and mastery of these tools. Reverse roles: Ask your kids to teach you something new. Whether it's programming your phone, joining a social networking site or using a photo-sharing service, you may learn a new skill and feel closer to your child -- and it can be fun, too!

Print these tips for use with your own children.

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Make Time to Disconnect: Digital Media and Family Relations

Learning Objective: Discover how digital media affects family life.

Procedure: Watch these short video clips and share your opinion.

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Try This: A Family "Media Fast"

Learning Objective: Find out what happens if your family goes for 24 hours with no media: no TV, no videogames, no radio, no Internet, no DVDs, no PDAs and no cell phones.

Procedure: Try Media Fast and see what you learn about yourself when you and your family go without using technology for a whole day -- or even longer. Print these tips for use with your own family.

Media Fast: A Strategy for Self-Reflection and Growth

It's a time-honored tradition in many families: Go for a day (or even longer) without any form of media. What's the point? A media fast gives you and your family the opportunity to reflect on the complex dependence we have on mass media and digital technology. It's a chance to see how deeply media and technology are woven into the fabric of our lives.

There's a discipline in fasting: It's not easy to do, but sometimes it's the best way to grow in self-reflection. A fast makes you think hard about your choices. A fast encourages introspection, and might reveal to you any bad habits you may have developed. A fast can also remind you about what you really love about media and technology.

Blogger and journalist Leo Babauta offers these and other options for a media fast:

If you're feeling bold, cut out everything for a week: No Internet, radio or newspaper. No reading. Watch the people and the world all around you. Get into your own head and start thinking and feeling for yourself.

Can't hack a week? Try one day. Cutting all Internet, TV, radio and even reading for a day would be pretty drastic for most of us. See what happens when you try it.

Fast on specific media, and take turns. Instead of cutting out everything, try cutting out only TV for a day or two. Then try one day going without music. Then see if you can live without e-mail for a day.

Can't give it up completely? Then track the time you spend on media for one day without actually cutting back. Add it up at the end of the day. See how many minutes you devote to each type of media. It might be an eye-opener.

To benefit most from your media fast, take time to reflect afterward in writing or in conversation. Ask yourself what was most difficult and why. What did you miss? What did you enjoy?

Rethink your media intake. What changes do you want to make to your media use? What do you need to do to implement those changes? You may discover that cutting out certain forms of media wasn't as hard as you thought and that you were able to get a lot done without them. Instead of launching right back into your old media habits, use media and digital technologies more thoughtfully from now on.

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Self-assessment

Now you're ready to answer the following questions to reflect on your own learning about Digital Parenting: Protecting and Empowering Kids.

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