After I wrote "The trust factor in parenting online kids," I read an insightful commentary by parent, author, and professor Lynn Schofield Clark in Psychology Today – "Disciplining Teens for Online Mistakes" – which touches on monitoring as well as the issue of parenting in public that I wrote about recently too. We definitely resonate, but Lynn is a scholar, writing a neutral piece that describes … [Read more...] about Parenting or (digital) public humiliation?
Parenting
The trust factor in parenting online kids
A new study indicates that a lot of parents who monitor their kids online and on phones do so without their children knowing it. The study – "The Online Generation Gap," just released by the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) – found that 70% of parents check the text messages on their teens' phones, while only 30% of the teens are aware they do, and 84% of parents monitor their teens' Web use, … [Read more...] about The trust factor in parenting online kids
Holiday help: Parental control tools for tablets
With tablets showing up on more and more kids' holiday wish lists (littler and littler kids!), parents will appreciate any help they can get with keep tablet use safe as well as fun. And there's help over at TechHive, which reports that Amazon Kindle Fire HD, Barnes & Noble Nook HD, and Apple’s iPad, all have some built-in parental controls (e.g., FreeTime on the Kindle Fire and Restrictions … [Read more...] about Holiday help: Parental control tools for tablets
Private vs. public parenting (& a Pew study)
Did you know that we parents are pretty darn engaged with the young social media users at our houses? To our credit, I feel, most of us are folding social media into our parenting, the Pew Internet researchers report. For example – although high school student Jake tells his friend that he's "probably the only kid in the world with their mom on Facebook" in this engaging YouTube dramatization by … [Read more...] about Private vs. public parenting (& a Pew study)
Does tracking our kids’ every move make them safer?
Reflecting on a cellphone app developer's claim, I'm thinking that tracking our kids' movements, moment by moment, isn't the best way to enhance "family awareness." Those are the words of Chris Hull, CEO of the company that developed the Life360 tracking app, in an interview for Time. Is that "awareness" as in "surveillance"? Oddly, Time interpreted Hull's reference to be "family awareness" as … [Read more...] about Does tracking our kids’ every move make them safer?