Raising the Digital Generation

The predominance of the Internet in the lives of the youth has given a new dimension to parenting. These days, Mom and Dad are not only concerned about their children’s health and education, they also have cyberbullies and identity thieves to think of, says AHEAD Interactive tutor Tine Tria. AHEAD Interactive provides real-time, face-to-face online tutorials.

That’s why parents need to learn a couple of new moves, apart from changing diapers and instilling discipline, to enable them to raise responsible children in the Internet age. Here are just some of them:

* Get online today! If you’re not an active Internet user, then you wouldn’t know what your kids are talking about. Educate yourself about the different platforms and applications available to your children. Surf the Web for the most popular sites that children and teenagers visit. Having first-hand experience of these sites would enable you to have fresh insights about why your kids are falling all over themselves over the Internet.

* Talk to your children about the perils of over-sharing. Social media networks allow the user to make everyday experiences larger than life.  When shared with your network, a personal experience is made even richer as your friends comment about it. That’s what makes these social networks so cool to children—and adults too!

However, you must warn your children about sharing too much information about their movements and activities. This can potentially be a security risk. Tell them to manage their privacy settings so that only a selected group of people can view their posts. If you have younger children, then it’s best to help them set up their accounts.

* Discuss Internet etiquette. There is such a thing as good manners on the Internet, and you should teach your children about them. For example, they shouldn’t respond to messages in capital letters. They shouldn’t forward messages of dubious origins.  And they should always read and re-read their messages before clicking the send button.

* Warn them about cybercrime.  Advise your child against chatting with someone he doesn’t know, confirming a stranger as a friend in Facebook, or meeting an online acquaintance in person. There have been reports of untoward crimes towards children who met with their online friends.

* Make social networks work for you. “Friend” your child on Facebook and follow him on Twitter. By going over his messages, tweets, videos, and photos, you can readily see his passion and interests. You can also check out his friends.

Using these social networks is also a cool way to stay in touch with your child. Tweet him every so often. Or share with him a nice link or cool video. However, don’t ever use Facebook or Twitter to get mad at him. Embarrassing your child on Facebook is so not cool.