Technology is the most adopted tool by the kids, preteens and teens these days. Go to any place and you will see them busy with their devices let it be a smartphone, tablet or any other web enabled gadget such as iPod, iPad etc. You may wonder that what is in this technology that hooks every kid no matter what age limit they belong to. Well, there are many elements that may entice them such as social networks, gaming, texting, chatting and nonetheless self-branding. You never know what your kids prefer or what are they up to until or unless you start taking interest in their activities. So now, to help you out, here we present you 6 steps to handle kids with technology. Have a look!
1. Get acquainted with the latest technology
Teens of this age are more tech-savvy than parents of any age. From their very early age, they are exposed to electronic devices and the handiness and attractiveness makes it easy for kids to master the technology at a much faster pace. Certainly, you cannot keep pace with them however as parents, it is imperative for you to educate yourselves on how our children are interacting with this technology, what are the growing trends in their community and nonetheless what are their preference and all.
2. Use Parental Control Apps
Use parental control apps to protect your child from explicit content, and to monitor your child’s online activities. Apps like FamilyTime Parental Control help you put parental controls on your kids’ smartphones so you can always control their device usage remotely. Using the app, you can monitor their activities and can also blacklist the applications that make your kid disobey you. You can also put the screen lock remotely and ban their access to the device in no time. This is not all, FamilyTime app does more than just locking the phone or blocking the apps. This application empowers parents to monitor how do their teens use the web, what locations they visit offline, etc. It has many other valuable features that make this app a preferred choice for the parents.
3. Communicate Risks and safety tips to our kids
“Knowledge is the best tool” consider this phrase and communicate the online risks to your kids openly. It is extremely important for them to know about the dangers that can be found online. But remember that you will have to discuss these dangers with your child in an age appropriate manner. Once you communicate, communicate, work together as a family and teach them best possible ways to be safe online to minimize these risks.
4. Define middle ground and create realistic rules
Do not be an extremist who liberates to no limit and restricts straight-out; rather get on the middle grounds while considering the concerns and preferences of your kid too. Sit with them and work together to set realistic limits that you can implement and they can follow instead of overreacting. This will help you limit their tech interaction in an effective way!
5. Obtain Your Child’s Passwords
This is the hard part to ask your kids share their passwords but is safe too as kids normally lack the maturity to handle online problems, so, it is the responsibility of parents to keep them safe. With any parental app, you can see what platform they are part of but to see their activities there either log into their accounts with their permission or join them as a friend.
6. Limit Multitasking
It is not easy for children growing up in today’s connected world. They are exposed to many things that we were not exposed to at their age. They also face more distractions than any generation before them.
It is not uncommon for teens to be texting, watching videos, listening to music, and trying to do their homework – all at the same time. According to this Kaiser Family Foundation report, kids now on average stay plugged in for 7 hours and 38 minutes a day.
As parents, we need to limit these distractions so that they can focus on getting what they need to accomplish or get done.
I hope that these tips will help you work with your children and the technology they use to figure out reasonable solutions too.
Great aritcle, thank you again for writing.