Screens, Teens & Tweens – Article discusses ways to keep your kids safe and help them grow in holiness in a world full of screens. (Screen time, just to clarify is tv, movies, video games, tablets, computers and phones…anything with a screen.)
Tag: internet
“but AO3 *wants* writers on their platform, writers are providing a service for them, that’s how they get content.”
no, they are PROVIDING you a platform. for your content. as a service to you.
please, please, please learn how the internet works.
the companies that WANT you on the platform are the companies that are SELLING YOU TO ADVERTISERS.
*Facebook* wants you on their platform. *Tumblr* wants you on their platform. *FF.net* wants you on their platform. You are Facebook’s product. Facebook is not a service to you. It is an incentive for you to give them eyes and data to sell. And the second your eyes and data stop being profitable they will toss you under the bus.
That’s why fans made AO3. So we had a space that was ours, that wasn’t profiting off of us, so we wouldn’t get sold out.
via reddit.com
not to sound like a baby boomer or some other bullshit but the internet really has given children access to things they absolutely should not see. i just heard my ten year old brother make a daddy joke. this really has to stop.
like i’m not joking. i’m like. just so angry i can’t articulate it right now but i’m so upset, especially with adults/older teenagers who egg children on in making jokes far beyond their age because they think it’s funny.
Not only that, but they look up their favorite shows and see porn of their favorite characters
^ This point is crucial. This is not as simply avoided as “don’t like don’t read/watch” disclaimers advise and there is not adequate safeguarding against children accessing sexually explicit material even so much as third-party websites that require a user to agree that they are over the age of 18.
Safesearch will filter out most of it. Not all of it, most of it.
If anything slips through the cracks, report it to Google so they can filter it out.
Also, you can still put parental controls on computers and browsers.
Seriously yo, you can’t expect the internet to be safe for your kid. Minus the porn and shit they could see, there is still a crap ton of other trouble they could get into with scams, identity theft, stumbling upon websites where you can buy drugs, etc.
Stop letting kids onto the internet unsupervised and not monitoring the sites that they are visiting.
Letting your children on the internet before they’re at least ten years old is bad parenting tbh, and even after you do let them online you should monitor what they’re doing. I understand “we live in a digital world now” but that doesn’t mean you should throw your children into it from the moment of birth.
I taught 4th grade this past year, and 10-year-olds have access to so much more than I did at their age. My students watched Rick and Morty, Orange is the New Black, It, and other R-rated and inappropriate shows and movies. They played GTA, COD, and other intense, violent, rated M games.
This exposure to adult media impacted how they spoke and interacted with each other. They had difficulty forming healthy friendships. Disagreements escalated quickly and several times I had to stop students from getting in fistfights.
Heck, the year before I taught 1st grade and a 7-YEAR-OLD male student made sexual threats against a female classmate.
So here’s how to keep your kid safe in a “Digital Age”:
PARENTAL CONTROLS. If your child is going to use a computer, whitelist the sites they can use. Make sure the passcode you use to set these restrictions is not easily guessed (don’t use birthdays or other info your kid knows) because kids WILL try to get around restrictions.
MONITOR. Don’t let your kid on the internet for long periods of time without checking in on what they’re doing. Don’t let them use the internet in their room with the door closed. I say this as someone who did get away with stuff I shouldn’t have been doing on the internet when I was about 10-12, because my parents let me sit in the computer room with the door closed and unfettered access all day long. Even the most innocent, well-behaved kid can get into stuff they shouldn’t VERY easily.
COMMUNICATE. Talk to your kids about internet safety and potential risks of internet usage. Talk to them about the sites they’re using and the videos they’re watching. Focus the conversation on keeping them safe so they know they can come to you if they ever feel unsafe or uncomfortable on the internet.
SET THE EXAMPLE. Limit your own internet usage and increase time spent as a family playing games, eating meals without devices, and talking. Kids will follow what they see. If you’re glued to your phone/laptop all day, they’ll want to be as well.
POSITIVE RESOURCES: Find kid-friendly and educational websites to help your kid have positive experiences on the internet. Some examples:
- Kiddle.co is a kid-friendly search engine, great for completing research projects for school.
- Abcya.com has a lot of fun educational games aligned with common core standards.
- Code.org has programs for kids to learn coding and make their own games.
Wide Spread Interests 