Your kids and technology

[Minnie the Minx]

These days they are connected to everything.

 

Modern technology has its bonuses and its pitfalls.

 

 How do we police it ? I am tecchie challenged, started a thread on here about resizing pics, ok then sent hubby a message 'darling can you help me please?' It was an instant response. Kids are on another level.

 

The international school IB they go to has Smartboards, we had to buy them iPads to log onto the school uploading the homework and other projects. No big deal. They have the latest gear not society push but it is here. They have they latest iPhones company perk so hubby likes them to have them I just think in this day kids should be policed more. They love the various games, the apps, they are good kids but is this getting out of hand for kids?

 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2017 by Minnie the Minx

[p_brownstone]

It can certainly get out of hand if you don't set some firm rules.

 

I have my daughter and two of her cousins staying with me every weekday, they too need computers to access their school website for homework assignments etc., which is OK, they all have iPads and Smart 'phones or use my home computer.

 

Rules are: 

1 hour of playtime on the iPads etc. once all homework has been done.

Absolutely NO use of iPads or 'phones at the dinner table - at home or when we eat out.

NO iPads or 'phones in the bedroom after "lights out".

 

Patrick

[Covertjay]

American Association of Paediatricians no tech for 2 and under and one hour a day up to 6 years old. Two hours above that. Based on over 200 studies. More creates an addiction and based on 17 years in lower primary I'd say it's true.

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[SiamBeast]

We can't police WHAT they  do with it, because with VPNs, Tor, proxies, etc they can access whatever they want - however the thing we can police is HOW MUCH time they spend on those devices.

 

I believe in "leading by example" - my wife and I have no Facebook, and while our kid will make his own decisions, we strongly encourage him to not open an account. We will give a 1-hour rule per day for iPads / tablets / etc. and absolutely no phone at the dinner table.

 

In short, we want to prevent our kids from becoming smartphone zombies who keep texting.

[steveyinasia]

Unfortunately it is too late for my partners son, he is a total phone zombie with a personality to match.  I fear for the youth of today as they will enter the world with zero social skills.

[happylarry]

Unfortunately I think you guys are missing something, you say "enter the world with zero social skills" but by barring Facebook altogether just because you don't want to join it yourself then you are inadvertently vastly limiting their social life with their friends because one and all don't just swap pics or messages but use the social media to arrange evenings out etc. seriously guys, as someone said earlier restrict their FB hours but don't bar it altogether, you would make your kids the odd ones out and they wouldn't thank you for that.

HL

[ncc1701d]

I think it is easier to educate kids about what they are seeing. My ex "caught" my 12 yo son looking at porn on his iPad. She went mental at him. She asked me to figure out how to restrict him viewing such things and I laughed. You can't. You control their iPad, they will go to one of their mates, or a different computer. 

 

She said my son isn't at the right age for this sort of thing and I replied, "yes, he's a bit older than I thought he would have been before looking at this sort of thing". 

 

Because of her overreaction, he thinks he's done something wrong, which I think is the completely wrong way to address the issues.

 

as for time spent - it's the parents job to get them interested in things other than technology. My kids do a lot of sports and also a lot of gaming and they have outstanding grades. I think they are doing just fine.

 

its how you take them away from "too much" tech that's the key imo