Feeling a little behind the times? Here are three steps to get you on the right track with technology with your child. 1. Show and Tell - Kids love to teach adults how to use something. Ask your child to show you how to use a website, device, or app. This will help if you ever need to access it and it opens up that line of communication. 2. Browser History - When we are online, our history is tracked. After a child has been online, you can easily check their history. It's a good idea to do once in awhile in order to hold your child accountable. Typically it is on the toolbar once you open the browser (Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, etc.). You can view the full history from there. If there are things you are not comfortable with or you are not sure of, talk to your child about them. 3. Passwords - One parent I know created the password to her child's Facebook when she first started using it. The only way her child could login was with her mom doing it for her. To me, this is very wise to do as your child starts out using social media. Remember, the legal age for them to be on social media is 13. Being in control of the password ensures you can see what is on their account first, you can check their messages, and limit their activity. Eventually, you could give more control as they gain trust, knowledge, and age. Kids will argue they need privacy and you aren't trusting them. Remember to have talks with them as to why you are doing this. It isn't about having control over them, it is about safety. Have real talks with them. You are the parent, and you make the choices for your child.
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Kids love YouTube. They could watch it for hours, game how-to videos, music, funny videos, the list goes on and on! Sometimes we run into the problem where they see material we would prefer for them not to see. We can't preview every video they see on YouTube, but there are some pieces we can put in place for them in order to scaffold them into using YouTube. A new app was released this March called YouTube Kids. It is available on Android devices and iOS devices. This app has only age-appropriate videos, channels, and playlists. They can still get to popular programming. The screen is easier for a child to navigate. The buttons are larger, making it easier to click what they want. When they play a video, it goes into automatic full-screen. You can feel safe knowing that kids can browse this app and not see questionable content. If they do, notify YouTube and they will take care of it. A few things to keep in mind:
Common Sense Media is a website that is ideal for parents wanting to keep a close eye on the media their children use. As they say, they "rate, educate, and advocate for kids, families, and schools". This website allows a user to explore by the age and media desired. They rate age appropriate movies, games, tv, books, apps, websites, and music. WOW! They tell you the best age for using or viewing the given media as well as the reasoning behind their rating. Here is an example of a movie rating done by Common Sense Media. They also added a new section called Parent Concerns which gives guidelines, videos, and articles to help you get through issues such as, screen time, cyberbullying, learning with technology, reading, etc.
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AuthorA teacher turned techie with an obsession with Google, teachers that love learning, and students that love life! Archives
May 2016
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