SOUTH LEARNERS CREATIVE SCHOOL, INC.
PARENTS’ CORNER – SEPTEMBER 2023
Parental Online Control
How Can We Help Our Children Become Good Digital Citizens?
We are familiar with the term “citizen”, denoting a membership or affiliation to a specific location. Our children (and ourselves), as users of new technology, may be dubbed as “digital citizens”, because of how we utilize technology (gadgets, multimedia, internet and the like) in our everyday lives. Our children are even called “digital natives”, wherein kids younger than toddler age may already navigate platforms such as You Tube (their ability to move from Baby Shark to Coco Melon by themselves) made parents ask “How did they know about it?”, digital natives indeed.Realizing the implications of the digital age, it is imperative that stakeholders (such as families and the school) should work hand in hand in ensuring the foundations of good digital citizenship of our children.
The parents and other family members have very important responsibilities: (1)being good role models (2) teaching and facilitating (3) guiding and correcting and (4)monitoring. Another important thing to point out is how OUR OWN PARENTING STYLES AND PHILOSOPHIES play an integral part in honing our children to becoming responsible digital citizens.
BEING A GOOD ROLE MODEL
“Your actions speak so loudly, I cannot hear what you are saying.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
This is a very striking quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, as it reminds us to reflect about “TEACHING BY EXAMPLE”. Let us begin first with analyzing the gadget/ multimedia/ internet use of our family.
Note: For younger children, this may affect their attention, language acquisition and social skills development
Do we do this while eating or before sleeping?
Do we balance this with other activities?
Do we allow gadget-free quality time?
These are all tough questions, but as parents, we need to be good examples FIRST.Being a good role model is NOT only limited to the frequency and duration, but to the quality of use.
How do we stay away from bad sites or fake news?
How do we respond to aggressive posts?
How do we respond to “bashing” or “bullying” that can be seen in the multi media? Do we react or respond or ignore?
TEACHING AND FACILITATING
Another important facet is teaching and facilitating our children to become more responsible “online”. It is a constant challenge for many, as we did NOT grow up with this kind of set up and environment.
*Teaching Control: Putting a designated “gadget time” to delineate that technology use is NOT a typical daily routine activity.
*Contract Setting: Gadget/technology use is a privilege. (I always tell my husband that it is not part of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, not that Abraham Maslow will know of our situation now). Gadget may be offered as a positive reinforcement AFTER a task completion/ chore completion/ test period and the like. It is something that they earn, and not a right they are born with.
*Establishing Good Habits: Our kids love their technology use, there is no denying this reality. They can spend HOURS and HOURS yet not noticing it. As every household is DIFFERENT, EACH can discuss their expected schedule/s of gadget/internet use for the children.
GUIDING, CORRECTING, MONITORING
Love is trust. We trust our children.
However, as many parents (like myself) learned, it has to be JUDICIOUS as well.
We have to teach, guide and correct our children– about privacy, security and cyberbullying.
Below are some tips on how we can educate our children to become more responsible online.
- Explain WHY it is important for kids to not give personal information (ex: their home address or school), or post inappropriate pictures or videos of themselves online
- Explain to children WHAT sites are appropriate for kids and which ones are not, and WHY these sites must be avoided
- Emphasize that they should interact with everyone online WITH RESPECT. They should NOT engage in bad words, name-calling, rude conversations and other activities that can hurt the feelings of others. Furthermore, children must be taught on what is deemed funny versus disrespectful . One should not post anything, whether a photo, video, or comment, that could end up hurting someone’s feelings.
- Conversely, we have to teach our children WHAT to do when they are bullied online. Examples include (the FIRST step) telling a responsible adult and NOT engaging/participating in the bad situation
- For children exposed to social media: Inform and explain that what they see in the internet is NOT ALWAYS true. Sometimes there are people who are lying or using a fake identity in social media.
- Educate the children about the kind of photos that they share. They should know never to post nude pictures or anything that could be seen as suggestive, even if they are sending these pictures to someone that they know and trust. Explain the consequences if photos like these were stolen or shared without permission.
Explain that real life interactions are more important and seek/ provide opportunities for these
Explain that real life interactions are more important and seek/ provide opportunities for theseTruly, living in the “digital age” has its pros and cons. By teaching our children to become responsible digital citizens, we prepare them for the years to come.
Written by:
Kay Ezekiel T. Ravago, OTRP, LPT
Program Director, SLCS
