Our teenage screentime was very different from our kids' screentime. Sure we have some nostalgia for family TV viewing because it's pretty much a thing of the past, but does that mean family togetherness is? What about the equally lightweight but higher-frequency connecting we do with our kids via text messages? The family gaming some of us do on the Wii or Kinect, in online social games, or World … [Read more...] about Our sitcoms (back then) vs. their social networking
Parenting
Digital parenting advice from across the pond
British mobile giant Vodafone has crammed a whole lot of parenting into its spanking-new guide for parents. Available in print in the UK and online here, Digital Parenting offers 112 pages of interviews, how-to's (on everything from Google SafeSearch to Windows 7 Parental Controls), and expert views on a large range of issues: digital parenting by age and stage, cyberbullying, sexting, adult … [Read more...] about Digital parenting advice from across the pond
Check out our new ‘Parents’ Guide to Facebook’!
We ConnectSafely folk are pleased (and excited) to tell you about our new little Facebook guide for parents, educators, and everybody looking for the basics on the world's most popular social networking site – what it is, why young people use it, how to turn it into a great parenting tool, and how to optimize its privacy settings for teens. I started NetFamilyNews 11 years ago on the premise that … [Read more...] about Check out our new ‘Parents’ Guide to Facebook’!
A window onto family Facebook use: TRUSTe study
Eighty percent of US parents of teens have a social networking account; of those parents, 95% have Facebook accounts; and of that 95%, the vast majority (86%) are friends with their teens in Facebook. Interestingly, in those households where both a parent and a teen have Facebook accounts, more than a third of the teens said they got their parent to join Facebook," reports TRUSTe, which … [Read more...] about A window onto family Facebook use: TRUSTe study
Parents, you’re not just focusing on FB, right?
It's great that parents are getting the message that they can monitor their kids on Facebook by joining it, but they also need to remember that Facebook isn't the all of teen online socializing (even though it's in the news a lot!). It's just the big social utility that aggregates basically "everybody" in teens' real-world school and social lives. But there's plenty more social activity happening … [Read more...] about Parents, you’re not just focusing on FB, right?