Raising Children in a Digital World – The Game has Changed
It’s amazing how much the world has changed since I grew up in the 70s and 80s. We’ve gone from movies on VHS, music on cassettes, playing Pac Man and talking to friends on hard-line telephones to a world where you can literally be plugged-in 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Today we have the internet, email, texting, twitter, blogs, facebook, video-chat, iPods, iPads, iPhones, ebooks, laptops, netbooks, Wii, Playstation, Xbox, and on, and on, and on… And you wonder why it’s so difficult to get your child’s attention today. :)
Earlier this year the Kaiser Family Foundation published some incredible statistics on just how plugged-in our children are. I’d encourage you to read the full report at this link but here are some highlights.
- 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week).
- Because they spend so much of that time ‘media multitasking’ (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media content into those 7½ hours.
- TV remains the dominant type of media content consumed, at 4:29 a day, followed by music/audio at 2:31, computers at 1:29, video games at 1:13, print at :38, and movies at :25 a day.
- Three-quarters (74%) of all 7th-12th graders say they have a profile on a social networking site.
- 7th-12th graders report spending an average of 1:35 a day sending or receiving texts. (Time spent texting is not counted as media use in this study.)
Based on the evidence we can’t deny that raising children today is much different than it was even ten short years ago. For better or worse the game has changed and it’s important that we, as parents, adjust as well so we can raise happy, healthy and productive children in this new digital world.
I like the way Dr Tanya Byron, a Clinical Psychologist from the UK, put it:
“The virtual world and the real world do contain risks, and children left to navigate a solo path through either, face many dangers. The trouble is that although as adults we instinctively know how to protect our children offline, we often assume that their greater technological expertise will ensure they can look after themselves online. But knowledge is not the same as wisdom.”
So there you have it. Even if your children know more about this digital world than you do that knowledge does not translate into wisdom. It’s our job as parents to insure our children’s safety both offline and online.
Without further ado I’d like to give you some tools and ideas that can help.
1. The Kaiser Family Foundation found in their study that only about 30% of young people say they have rules about how much time they can spend watching TV, playing video games, and using the computer. But when parents do set limits, children spend less time with media: those with any media rules consume nearly 3 hours less media per day than those with no rules.
2. Keep the TVs, computers and gaming consoles out of the bedrooms. All of these devices and activities should be done in a community or family room. I’ve never liked the idea of TVs in bedrooms but there’s not much danger in it since the TV, like an iPod is one-way media. But allowing a computer with internet access in a bedroom can be very dangerous since a child can communicate with absolutely anyone in the world at any time of the day or night. That’s scary!
3. If you have children that use a computer to access the internet you need to install an internet filter. Children don’t go looking for trouble on the internet but a simple typo in a search engine or clicking the wrong link can expose your children to things you would never want them exposed to. Here’s some Internet Filtering Software Reviews. They all have different features and some cost more than others. In our house we use an excellent free internet filter called K9 Web Protection so if cost was an issue now you have no excuse. Install a web filter today.
4. If you ever wonder if a movie, game or website is appropriate for your children there’s a great website that gives excellent reviews of all types of media and shows what ages the media is appropriate for. Check out CommonSenseMedia.org.
5. Probably the most important thing you can do is talk to your kids about their media use. Knowing you care is huge so don’t ever be afraid to ask your children who their texting, what games they’re playing, what websites they visit, etc.. And if you don’t understand something about all the new technology just ask your kids. They’d probably be happy to teach you a thing or two.
The game has changed but you can’t lose unless you decide to just put your head in the sand. So get in the game, you can do it and your children deserve it!
-Bert
