Parenting kid is a thankless job and as parents we all have gone through several challenges raising them, but it seems that the current advent of technology and social media is making it all the more challenges for parents. Can we really keep pace with them?
Until recently, you could keep the computer in the common room and make sure that the kid access it from there, but now, with laptop and smartphones and tablets becoming inseparable part of their lives, there’s only so much you can do. How do we handle that?
‘Facebook’!!! exclaims our 5 YO as soon as we login to the social media site and she enjoys looking at the various photos, even insisting us to click on the ones she likes. And the other day she saw me on Google+ and with a question mark look asked me ‘Google.com’??
Phew!! I didn’t know what to answer and there were several such incidents that happen which left me intrigued. At her age, we never thought it important to tell her about Facebook or any other social media sites but now after few incidents, we are looking at various parenting articles to be equipped with some REAL answers.
What are those answers or new parenting techniques?
You might want to drop in to #MediaChat as I share some answers on this. We will be live on 3/14 10PM EST or 3/15 7.30AM India time. I want to share that as parents, there is so much that we can do and we ought to do, if we really want our kids to be safe using Social Media.
At a broader level though, these answers would be about security, privacy. Since, we would not really be able to stop them from getting on the social media channels, with few parenting tips, I aim to help us, the parents to have at least some knowledge about the good practices.
And I got to thank couple of my Facebook friends Aïda Boucheron and Kelly Lieberman for giving me this idea for #MediaChat. They have started a Facebook Group ‘Tech Smart Kid‘ aimed to equip parents of kids from age 0 to 17 stay abreast with technology. On the group, we share some excellent articles, tools, updates and make the parents aware about all the latest information on the web.
So, looking forward to see you on 3/14 or 3/15 (depending on which part of the world you are). Let’s make Social Media a great experience for our kids.Photo Credit: John&Fish via photopin cc
