At the end of our Good Digital Citizenship special emphasis week, we did a survey of our students. We asked several questions around what they learned, what they talk about at home with their parents, and what they need to change in their current digital footprint. We believe that the school, home and church need to work together to raise our children. To that end, I want to offer a few strategies that will help you as parents’ guide your children to healthy digital footprints.

Thanks to our good friends at West Bend Cares and Covenant Eyes, the following ten parenting tips for raising children in this digital age are:

1. Be good role models for using digital devices.
2. Establish and clarify family rules about devices as early as possible in your child’s life. Changing or tightening the rules is more difficult later in your child’s life.
3. Maintain an open and ongoing dialogue with your children about the internet, social networking, the dangers of cyber-bullying, and the addictiveness of online pornography.
• Cyber-bullying:  Stress how important it is for your children to come to you if they’re bullied or treated disrespectfully online.
• Teach your children healthy sexuality and stress the importance – especially for your sons – of avoiding online pornography.
4. Limit screen time – TV, cell phone, PC, laptop, iPad/iPod, etc.
5. Place home computers in common areas like living rooms and family rooms. Do not allow children to take devices into their bedrooms at night.
6. Delay your child’s access to social networking sites and Smartphones until middle school or high school. If you want your under-age-12 child to have a cell phone for emergencies, consider a basic cell phone and shut off internet access with parent controls.
7. Enable parental controls on all devices (i.e., PCs, laptops, Smartphones). For children 12 and under, consider shutting off internet access on handheld devices. For teens 13 and older, consider using internet blocking/filtering software (i.e.,CovenantEyes.com).
8. Monitor screen time, including email and texts. Randomly reviews apps and internet sites on their Smartphones/iPads/laptops. Establish clear guidelines about your teen having access to and using social networking sites such as Facebook.
9. If problems occur for teens, consider using an accountability service (CovenantEyes.com) to monitor internet use on computers and smartphones.
10. Know your children’s friends and their parents, and know what they’re doing when they’re at their friends’ homes. Common exposure to online pornographic images is likely to occur at a peer’s home.

As a school, we are committed to working with parents and are hosting several “Partnering with Parents” evenings throughout the school year. What are some topics you would want to have us deal with at our Partnering with Parents sessions?

http://www.thesilverlining.com/westbendcares/blog/bid/190248/10-Tips-for-Parenting-the-Digital-Child