Parenting in the Digital Age

I'm going to put my cards on the table and say that I'm definitely not a 'curling parent'. And if ever I was, I'm definitely not anymore...



I have three boys – 8, 5 and 3 – all very independent in their own right with one perhaps being a bit more ‘demanding’ than the others. We don’t and never have ‘child-proofed’ our home. OK, we don’t leave knives lying around the place or the fireguard off the fireplace, but we’ve never used a stair gate, we’ve never put covers on plug sockets and we’ve never bubble wrapped a coffee table.

I say this in jest of course and as a parent, I protect my kids as best I can but there are always going to be times and situations when I can’t protect them and I accept that. All I can do is equip them the best I can, so that they can protect themselves the best they can.

So what, you might ask, is a ‘curling parent’? Danish psychologist Bent Hougaard coined the term "Curling Parents" to refer to those parents who try to sweep away all obstacles in their offspring's path so that their child can go through life without the slightest bump. They continually make sure that nothing is interfering with or negatively affecting their child.

It’s a somewhat regimented and directed parenting style with the goal of protecting the physical and mental well-being of the child. But what’s wrong with that? Well, the downside is that parents are unconsciously at risk of stifling the child. What they are doing is potentially curtailing their children’s chance of developing essential life skills and feelings of personal responsibility and achievement.

Source rte.ie

The Sydney eSafety 2019 conference saw policy makers, researchers and practitioners from different fields and countries come together to discuss how to improve children’s digital lives. Our presentation on Global Kids Online (GKO) provided a foretaste of our 11 country comparative findings report, and the insights gleaned from an independent evaluation report of GKO impact in our partner countries. Both reports will be published in the coming few months – watch this space.



GKO, an international research effort bringing together LSE, UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti, EU Kids Online, and multiple partners around the world, aims to:
- Create a global network of researchers/ experts and build national capacity;
- Understand children’s digital experiences and outcomes in all their individual and contextual diversity;
- Contribute to the evidence base for policy makers and practitioners to strengthen children’s rights in the digital age, maximizing their opportunities to benefit while minimizing risk of harm.

Working across multiple countries is challenging, especially as culturally-diverse conditions in the global South shape the experiences of the majority of children now online. For instance, while in the global North we make a series of assumptions about the context in which children go online, these may be invalid in the global South, where community values and parenting practices are important in distinctive ways, where digital devices are often shared in highly unequal ways, and where children’s online lives are “mobile first” or “mobile only.”

Our research toolkit (see video) seeks to balance cross-national comparability with contextual adaptation. And our impact toolkit seeks to ensure that the resulting findings reach policy makers effectively. We have just finished analysing the data from 14,733 children aged 9-17 who use the internet were surveyed using the Global Kids Online methodology, together with one of their parents, between 2016-2018, in 11 countries across four different regions.

Source: globalkidsonline.net

In an era where data privacy is getting further and further out of reach for adults, the digital native generation has convinced parents of the right to privacy on their social media, text, and phone communications. Gone are the days of the carpool drop offs where teens talked freely in the backseat while a parent casually looked for clues or make sure things were socially on track for their children.



The days of the family LAN line where you had an idea of who was calling the house are a forgotten memory. This generation feels a sense of entitlement to privacy online from parents, but is freely giving away their digital footprint to companies and peers which the in turn use to manipulate them. Targeted advertising, engaging videos tailored to their specific fears, and the distribution of naked photos of each other are common place and happening right under the noses of parents who don’t know how or where to look.

Xennials are the generation of digital immigrants, writing the rule book for parenting in the digital age. They got this tech when we were young enough to adopt it, but old enough to have some judgement about what information is private. The current generation is being raised on free porn with no age gates, pressure to create their online brand in elementary school, and parents who are addicted to their own phones.

The digital immigrant generation is still reeling from identity theft, credit agencies being hacked, and a loss of control. The newest generations of tech users think live streaming naked with random strangers is a fun dare for a middle school slumber party. We have never had more distance between two generations on the value of privacy.

Source pedimom.com

Parenting is tough, the pay is horrible, and you basically get one shot at doing it right. And that was before some genius invented the smartphone. That little go-everywhere, always-connected device makes raising kids even more challenging.



While parenting is not for sissies, consider what it must be like to be a teen today. Your young brain is all wired and ready to test boundaries, connect with peers, and make poor decisions without a care for long-term consequences—and you’ve got that very same smartphone in your possession. It almost seems unfair. Any kid who can survive modern adolescence without suffering a digital mishap should win an Olympic medal.

Is The Massive Pressure of Constant Connectivity Getting To Our Kids?

A new study in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology asserts that teen depression increased by more than 60% between 2009 and 2017. For children ages 12 to 13, depression rates increased by 47%. Researchers noted the same upward trend in suicides, attempted suicides, and serious psychological distress amongst youth too. While unable to clearly pinpoint the cause of this adolescent distress, in their summary the study’s authors call for “more research to understand the role of factors such as technology and digital media use.”

It’s easy to blame adolescent angst on technology. After all, the suddenness of technology's sheer ubiquity makes it the obvious culprit. But isn't it also possible that technology just amplifies all of the world’s other problems—like climate change, gun violence, the difficulty of getting into college, and more? Plus, technology provides youth a place to escape from these problems and to commiserate with peers. It’s complex and there’s still a lot we don’t know.

Read more psychologytoday.com

Parenting has its significance and gets started the day we have opened our lives. Our parents did their best to protect us from all the possible dangers that we could face in our lives.So, parenting is been an old wine because since mankind has put his first step in terms of Adam and Eve parenting begins and it’s practicing till date by every parent all across the globe. A couple of decades ago parenting was the same it was running from the centuries. Parents in the post-tech era have to look after kids and teens outside the houses own their own. They have to look after both work and children at the same time. Parenting is been the crucial thing in parents life otherwise bullies, stalkers and sexual predators can trap your kids and teens in daily life. So, in old times it happens a lot and parents just don’t allow their kids and teens too much time outside the house.



However, since the technology has been advanced parents have to do parenting in multiple shapes. On the other hand, they have to stay updated all the time what kids and teens are doing and where they are present at the moment. Smartphone technology and its access to the children have put parents into deep trouble. Parents have to use the technology against the technology to apply digital parenting on kids and teens digital activities. Let’s discuss the basic difference between parenting and digital parenting.

Parents these days have to do the parenting for the real –life and as well as digital parenting in order to deal with their activities online. However, technology has made parenting and digital parenting easy with the use of mobile phone monitoring software that keeps parents update about the real –life and digital activities of children.

Read more techscrolling.com

As classrooms across the country embrace digital textbooks, one Sydney school has declared the e-book era over and returned to the old-fashioned hard copy version because it improves comprehension and reduces distraction.



For the past five years, Reddam House's primary and junior high school classes have used e-textbooks on iPads. But the consistent feedback from the students has been that they preferred pages to screens.

Teachers also found the iPads were distracting and did not contribute to students' technology skills, prompting the school to announce that students should no longer use digital textbooks, and must revert to hard-copy versions instead.

"We hadn't completely gone away from hard copy," said principal Dave Pitcairn. "We kept year 11 and 12 hard copy. When [students] got to year 11, and now had the comparison between digital and hard copy, they preferred the hard copy.

"The ease of navigation through the textbook was easier with the hard copy. I believe they learn better the more faculties they use, the more senses they use in research and reading and making notes."

Read more smh.com.au

Ideas for creative and imaginative play are available all around us. Emotional, cognitive, and fine motor skills develop with the introduction to the simple things. Providing children with creative opportunities for play will allow them to develop these important skills as well as provide them with the opportunity to explore and learn about the world around them.

If you are looking for ideas for fun and creative games I recommend the next youtube channel


- youtube.com
- facebook.com

During the play a child is developing many different functions that are foundational for brain development. Play helps to build the relations between neurons, which improve our memory and allow easier, steady connection between right and left brains.

Play allow us to get the confidence by doing unexpected things and also take intellectual property risks by sharing our new ideas with others. Play does not only allow person to come up with unique approaches, but also allow individuals to express themselves in a unique and creative way. Therefore, developing skills, such as being flexible, having a willingness to learn, solving the problems and create new designs are possible to achieve with the play.

Ability to dare to fail is also the outcome of a play. Different games can help person improve its spacial mapping skills, which can be used in maths, self-control, with games that requires time-limit and other skills such as better attention, focus etc.

It’s 5 am on a Saturday morning. I open Instagram and begin scrolling. Hundreds of videos of cats, memes, people’s food and much, much more.



I check my phone: it’s 6 am. I feel that sense of shame- another productive morning wasted. I should have continued sleeping. What is the point of waking up early if I am going to be browsing the internet? I am punishing myself at this point.

As a mom who tries to be productive, we have all been here. Perhaps you are reading this article as a mean of escaping your reality. If that’s the case, I hope you find this read compelling enough to keep you going till you get some inspiration.

At the same time, a part of me wishes you stop reading. In fact, don’t read this if your child is looking at you crying for your attention. Come back here when you have given him/her your 100% self. That’s the best advice I can give.



If you are still here despite having something important to do- I have another advice: avoid “addictive” media. It is designed to grab your attention and hook you from the minute you log in. It’s easier to keep scrolling on your phone than to get out of bed.

Read more kidsnclicks.com

Toy company funds research suggesting educational development can be hindered by early formal schooling. So are UK schools getting it wrong?



Parents are squeezing the role of play out of their children’s lives in favour of the three ‘R’s as they try to prepare their offspring for a competitive world, according to the head of Lego’s education charity arm.

A lack of understanding of the value of play is prompting parents and schools alike to reduce it as a priority, says Hanne Rasmussen, head of the Lego Foundation. If parents and governments push children towards numeracy and literacy earlier and earlier, it means they miss out on the early play-based learning that helps to develop creativity, problem-solving and empathy, she says.

According to Rasmussen, the evidence for play-based learning has built enormously over the last decade, but parents don’t know about it. “Both in the formal education system and in the homes of children, the focus on the value of play is rather limited. That’s really something we want to work on – to improve the understanding of the value of play and what play really can do, where more and more it is squeezed by a desire both from the formal system and from parents that children should learn specific literacy and numeracy quite early.” Advertisement

The intervention by Rasmussen directly challenges the knowledge-based, heavily tested approach to schooling favoured by the UK government – and questioned by many education practitioners.



The 29-year-old Lego Foundation, generously funded with a quarter of Lego’s post-tax profits, is beginning to flex its muscles. Where once it quietly dished out cash – and bricks – to lots of small projects, it has set its sights on campaigning for a mindset change in education around the world. “Our contribution to the world is to challenge the status quo by redefining play and reimagining learning,” says the foundation’s mission statement.

Part of the mission involves putting £4m into a new “Lego professorship” at Cambridge University – the first incumbent will be chosen in April – and supporting an accompanying Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning (Pedal). There are more links with Harvard, MIT and other prestigious institutions. The aim is to provide an incontrovertible academic underpinning to the educational value of play, and to define more clearly what works and how to measure it, arming Lego with more evidence to support its campaigning.

Read more theguardian.com

Children as young as five should be treated for depression using smartphone therapy, NHS watchdogs have ruled.



The new advice from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) says all children and young people suffering from mild depression should be offered “cognitive behavioural therapy” - delivered via mobile phones and tablets.

The guidance, for identifying and managing depression in children and young people aged five to 18, says online therapy and courses in mindfulness should be the first options for treatment of mild cases.

Nice said the programmes meant children could get faster access to psychological help, avoiding long waiting lists.

GPs will be able to recommend digital CBT programmes, which can be accessed via smartphones, computers and tablets.

Such programmes use interactive games, animations, quizzes, puzzles and interactive games, with questions to identify dysfunctional thinking and tasks to help challenge negative thoughts.

Other modules look at developing coping strategies, setting goals and finding ways to improve self esteem.

Some programmes alert children identified as having potentially suicidal thoughts to go back to their doctor or counsellor for more help.



The new guidance also recommends group cognitive behavioural therapy, and group sessions of mindfulness training as first-line treatments.

Nice said that these, along with digital options, should be offered by GPs and other health professionals if children had continuing symptoms of mild depression, but did not have suicidal thoughts or other significant health conditions.

Children should be given a choice of treatments, officials said.

And Nice said healthcare professionals working in schools as well as at GP practices should be trained to detect symptoms of depression in children as young as five.

The guidance has been fast-tracked amid warnings that the NHS has been left “picking up the pieces” of an epidemic of mental health problems, fuelled by social media.

Read more telegraph.co.uk

I have this puzzle too.



I used it gradually. At first, to learn to place them in shape. Later I used it to learn the colors. At the end we used it to learn geometric shapes.



It is recommended that we adapt our requirements to the age of children. We first learn simple elements. Then difficult elements.

Winter is the most beautiful season for children. If you have the courage to go out and you know how to play with the kids.



You can go skiing. Beginners or advanced. If these locations are too far from your home you can go out in the park. Choose some toys and play in the snow with them.



Winter is not an enemy of health. He is a friend.