Has Parenting Become Difficult in the Digital Age?
Have you ever wondered about these questions?
Why is my kid 24*7 on any of the digital devices?
When they involved themselves more digitally, why has he become ruder and has sudden behavioural changes?
Why is my kid closing doors while using the internet?
Have my kids become more secretive?
Why did my kid block me from his social media page?
If the answer to all the above is yes, then you are on the correct page.
Two-thirds of parents say parenting is more complex today than 20 years ago, with technologies like the internet, social media, and mobile phones being cited as primary reasons.
The Internet is something that has been evolving over the years. And India is reported to be the second-largest online market in the world, with 700 million users.
COVID-19 has only increased the number of users making kids more digitally active.
There is no denying that technology is progressively becoming part of our daily lives. Because of the age difference, there is a lot of digital age gap between us as parents and children. I know you are always worried about the risks and threats that your kids can face online. So we need to make them Digitally Smart.
Making Your Kids Digitally Smart
How can we make our kids digitally smart?
Balance Online and Offline Time
We as parents must teach our kids how to achieve a stable and healthy balance between life online and offline.
We can set boundaries for kids by allocating specific time to use or not to used digital devices.
No Digital Time(when not to use screens):
Before school
During mealtime( i.e. breakfast, lunch, or dinner time)
When any guests are visiting
An hour before bedtime
During play hours
On holidays (like weekends), they should encourage themselves in various hobbies like singing, dancing, painting or learning any musical instrument.
The family get together.
Digital Time(when they can use their screens):
During school hours as schools are online these days
45 minutes in a day (how to utilise this 45 minutes)
kids can read ebooks online
can do some online course that would improve their knowledge
read news and gain some knowledge
use social media in the presence of us, parents
Treat/Reward Jar
Whenever your kids listen to you or Finished Work You can treat them with any of the items below:
How can we make our kids digitally safe and secure?
Share with Care (Be Internet Smart)
As parents, we can keep the children under our scrutiny. Children below the age of 16 should not be allowed to use their digital devices privately.
Don’t Fall for Fake information on the internet (Be Internet Alert)
We can ask the kids to share their pictures, videos, and voice notes with care. Anything that is rude or might hurt anyone’s emotions or religion should be avoiding it. They should be empathic toward every gender, caste, creed, and religion.
Secure Your Secrets (Be Internet Strong)
We can introduce the kids to digital media at the correct age. We can teach our children how to detect threats( hacking, malware, suspicious activities on the internet).
It’s Cool to Be Kind (Be Internet Kind)
Basic moral of “FORGIVE AND FORGET”. If anyone hurts the kids online, we can still ask them to be kind and forgive them.
When in Doubt, Talk It Out (Be Internet Brave)
We, as parents, can teach our kids the ability to manage risks online and avoid these risks. Cyberbullying, violence, and watching inappropriate sites are the major concerns for the safety of our children.
Google has a curriculum called “INTERNET AWESOME”. Where they teach kids to be digitally secured, click on the below link and make the kids
How important is being emotionally intelligent for kids?
Be kind and considerate:
We can teach our kids to be empathetic and build good relations with others online.
As parents, we can do various activities to determine how they would react to a particular situation and their thoughts towards them. If the children behave nicely at home with everyone being elders or younger and with anyone from any strata of the society, they will behave the same online. If you behave nicely with the maids at home, they will learn the same from you. Your activities will build them better person.
Neither force nor get forced:
we can teach our kids not to force anyone to accept their friend request or follow them or to share anything
Similarly, we should teach them not to get forced as well. And in case anyone is doing so, then inform the elders about it.
Whenever they are in doubt, we can ask the kids to talk to us or anyone they feel they can share.
I have found this great activity to understand the emotional behaviour of children. Try and use this with your kids. Take a printout right now and see the results for yourself.
Similarly, communication works in the same manner in digital media. We should try and understand everyone’s perspective and then make a decision.
Digital Communication
Be always ready:
We can make our kids aware of the importance of thinking before they say anything online.
They should be ready one day before about what they are posting, and more than that should share with others if whatever they are posting is correct or not.
Online is permanent:
Keep their personal information private. If shared once can be removed but will be stored in the internet data.
The children must think before they share anything online.
Sharing locations can be harmful to them only. It’s because of online sharing of the site that robbery and malicious activities have taken a hike.
Hurting anyone online has consequences:
How to be digitally kind
How to treat people inside a virtual group.
Respect other people’s wishes, views, and opinions.
Talk to the one who is familiar to us.
To inform the person and then leave any online room.
To tell them if they hurt anyone online, they have to face the consequences.
Few Tips/ Checklist for us as parents that we should take care of:
Install An AntiVirus
There is various antivirus available in the market. We should install antivirus on our computer to make our computer safe and not let different cookies or viruses harm our computer.
Demonstrate What You Repeat:
If we order our kids to use the device in public areas, they will never do it. What we as parents can do is become their friend, request them, or even better.
“WE CAN PRACTISE WHAT WE PREACH”.
We can sit with them and use our digital devices with them. These will help us become their friends, and we can ensure their safety.
Incognito Watching is Not The Solution
Incognito watching is not the solution. We as parents should ourselves avoid watching things that we want to teach our kids not to do. Secretive watching is not the solution-it’s a band-aid. And it’s easily accessible to them.
So from today itself, let’s spend some time with the kids. Learn new things from them- be their students and take tech tips from them. Do various activities with them. And most importantly, share some family time. What are you waiting for? Go and start it right now.
Kids are like clay, and it’s in our hands to shape them in the best way.
Bonus Tip
We also conduct webinars every month. To know more about us, please click on the link below and not forget to follow us
I agree with every suggestion and opinion in the questions.
Parents should monitor the content being watched or read by the children and make sure the children balance their digital and physical life.
Although there are many online educational sites, screen time is important to be monitored by parents too.
I agree with point that kids should be taught how to use internet properly
Like if someone ask ur otp or other information of bank then we should not give as it can be a fraud msg aor call to take money from our account
Kids can be digitally smart by attending online classes which teach them how to work on internet and by attending coding classes
Yes parents should see the amount of time digitally spent by the kids
We should have strict rules on time spent digitally
I agree with the points about making children digitally smart
It is essential to have a balance between virtual and real life.
By setting some period of screen-free time, children will start adapting the controlled screen time in their daily routines and it will be instilled in them as a habit.
A1. Yes, they should control the amount of time spent on the internet, but make sure to give freedom to the child to a certain extent.
A2. Initially, yes, parents can be strict but over time as the child starts following the rules on his/her own accord then one must start becoming more lenient.
I agree with every suggestion and opinion in the questions.
Parents should monitor the content being watched or read by the children and make sure the children balance their digital and physical life.
Although there are many online educational sites, screen time is important to be monitored by parents too.
I agree with point that kids should be taught how to use internet properly
Like if someone ask ur otp or other information of bank then we should not give as it can be a fraud msg aor call to take money from our account
Kids can be digitally smart by attending online classes which teach them how to work on internet and by attending coding classes
Yes parents should see the amount of time digitally spent by the kids
We should have strict rules on time spent digitally
I agree with the points about making children digitally smart
It is essential to have a balance between virtual and real life.
By setting some period of screen-free time, children will start adapting the controlled screen time in their daily routines and it will be instilled in them as a habit.
A1. Yes, they should control the amount of time spent on the internet, but make sure to give freedom to the child to a certain extent.
A2. Initially, yes, parents can be strict but over time as the child starts following the rules on his/her own accord then one must start becoming more lenient.