Parents And Digital Technology

In the decades it takes to bring up a child, parents face challenges that are both helped and hindered by the fact that they are living through a period of unprecedented digital innovation. In Parenting for a Digital Future, Sonia Livingstone and Alicia Blum-Ross draw on extensive and diverse qualitative and quantitative research with a range of parents in the UK to reveal how digital technologies characterize parenting in late modernity, as parents determine how to forge new territory with little precedent or support. They chart how parents often enact authority and values through digital technologies since "screen time," games, and social media have become both ways of being together and of setting boundaries. Parenting for a Digital Future moves beyond the panicky headlines to offer a deeply researched exploration of what it means to parent in a period of significant social and technological change.

Children today are digital natives, growing up in an age where social media and online communication is the norm. This book is an indispensable guide for parents who may feel they are struggling to keep up, addressing the issues that young people and their families face in the world of modern technology. Suzie Hayman, a parenting counsellor, and John Coleman, a distinguished psychologist, use their combined expertise to explore the challenges and possibilities of being constantly connected, helping parents to make choices about how they communicate, set boundaries and establish rules. Using real-world examples and solid psychological theory, the book looks first at the anxieties parents express about digital technology, followed by the serious potential threats such as cyber-bullying, sexting and easy access to pornographic or violent materials. However, the internet is also full of enormous potential and a further chapter explores the positive side of the digital playground. The authors also share their expert understanding of child and adolescent development and how this relates to the appeal of digital media, with special attention paid to the importance of good communication. The end result is a toolbox for parents, full of tips, strategies and techniques designed to help navigate the digital world, ensuring it is safe yet still exciting for young people. Parents and Digital Technology is essential reading for all parents and guardians as well as those caring for children and teenagers in a professional setting, who want to get the best out of life and modern technology while keeping safe in a family that talks to each other, spends time with each other and enjoys each other.

An essential guide for parents navigating the new frontier of hyper-connected kids. Today's teenagers spend about nine hours per day online. Parents of this ultra-connected generation struggle with decisions completely new to parenting: Should an eight-year-old be allowed to go on social media? How can parents help their children gain the most from the best aspects of the digital age? How can we keep kids safe from digital harm? John Palfrey and Urs Gasser bring together over a decade of research at Harvard to tackle parents' most urgent concerns. The Connected Parent is required reading for anyone trying to help their kids flourish in the fast-changing, uncharted territory of the digital age.

Becoming a Digital Parent is a practical, readable guide that will help all parents have confidence to successfully navigate technology with their children. It accessibly presents evidence-based guidance to offer an overview of the digital landscape, empowering parents to embrace opportunities whilst keeping children responsible and safe online. Covering a range of topics including developmental stages, screen time, bed time, gaming, digital identities, and helpful parenting apps and resources, Carrie Rogers-Whitehead explores the challenges and opportunities involved in parenting in the digital age. With advice for parents of babies through to teenagers, each chapter includes an explanation of the latest research, interviews with parents and experts, and helpful case studies gathered by the author during her extensive experience of working directly with parents and children. This book will show parents how to communicate better with their children, create a family technology plan, put in place intervention strategies when things happen, and take advantage of the benefits technology can afford us. Becoming a Digital Parent is ideal for all parents looking to effectively navigate the technological world, and the range of professionals who work with them.

You want your children to enjoy all the benefits a technological society has to offer, but at the same time, you want them to stay safe and act as responsible members of society. Raising a Digital Child is your guide. Inside, you will learn about many of the newest and most popular technologies, in parent-friendly language, along with discussions of the risks each might harbor and the types of behaviors that every child should learn in order to become a good citizen in this new digital world.

How can we protect our kids online—and teach them to protect themselves? Do you feel overwhelmed with technology in your home? Do headlines about this app or that website make you feel anxious and undecided as a parent? Do you get advice from many experts—but still feel unclear on what to do? This book unpacks the “3 Ms” of parenting in the digital age, a proven approach used with thousands of parents through the work of Digital Respons-Ability and its founder, Carrie Rogers-Whitehead. When Carrie first started working in the field of digital citizenship, she found significant gaps in how digital parenting was taught. Not only were parents not informed enough around technology, they also didn’t understand child developmental stages. Parents’ expectations for their children were unrealistic because they didn’t know how online responsibility changes at different ages, as children’s brains change. From this realization, Carrie developed the 3 Ms—three approaches to digital parenting, based on specific age ranges: Model (ages 0-8) Manage (ages 8-13) Monitor (ages 13-18) By teaching parents how to change their approach to digital responsibility based on the developmental stage of their child, she has seen significant success in fostering happier and healthier relationships between parents and kids, as well as safer tech use by kids at all ages. This book presents Carrie’s approach in an accessible, easy-to-implement manner, giving all parents the opportunity to develop better tech use in their own homes and families, and to parent confidently and without fear.

The reality is that while technology has advanced quickly, digital parenting skills have not kept pace. It may not be our fault, but it is definitely a problem. There is always so much information to process with the new tech, that as a parent it becomes difficult to distinguish that which is truly important and that which is not. As a parent and an e-learning professional, I understand and sympathise with the feeling of being overwhelmed by the use of new technology in our lives. While there is no such thing as perfection, the aim of this book is to give parents good enough information to get them started in the right direction in dealing with the technological challenges their children face.

"Even for today's most tech-savvy parents, managing kids' technology use is a huge challenge fraught with uncertainties. What kinds (and amounts) of screen time boost learning and development--and what kinds may be harmful? What is the right age for a game console or a smartphone? How can kids and teens be protected from cyberbullying and learn to be good digital citizens? What impact do parents' technology habits have? In her busy psychiatry practice--and while raising her own kids--Jodi Gold sees everyday both the mind-boggling benefits and the serious downsides of technology. In a positive, accessible style, she gives parents a wealth of practical strategies for navigating the digital frontier and creating realistic, doable rules and expectations forthe whole family"--