4 Reasons To “Digital Parenting” Your Children

Written by: Jessie Liew, Executive Contributor

Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.

How to raise smart children who can navigate online dangers and use technologies for their enrichment.

Do you know that:

• 70% of kids encounter sexual or violent content online while doing homework research,

• 17% of tweens (age 8-12) received an online message with photos or words that made them feel uncomfortable,

• 65% of 8-14 year-olds have been involved in a cyberbullying incident,

• 36% of girls and 31% of boys have been bullied online,

• 16% of high school students have considered suicide because of cyberbullying, and

• 75% of children would share personal information online in exchange for goods and services?

Most parents have concerns about the internet dangers out there, screen/games addiction, dangerous apps or games, exposure to inappropriate content, cyberbullying, online predators, social media depression, and changes in their children’s mindset and behavior.

Why do most parents have these concerns and yet are not able to embrace digital parenting?

1. Most parents do not have the education and skills on internet safety and digital parenting,

2. Some parents refuse to understand the online world, and

3. They are not sure how to allow their children to explore the Internet boundaries on their own.

Digital parenting describes parental efforts and practices for comprehending, supporting, and regulating children's activities in digital environments.

As a mother of 4, a cybersecurity expert, I also face the same tasks as all parents, which is rearing safe and responsible digital children.

Here are the reasons to digital parenting your children:

1. If you don’t shape your children’s internet habits, someone else will.

All the giant tech companies are designing habit-forming apps. All these apps are designed to create desired habits for their consumers. But, it is not the desired habit for our children and us.

According to Nir Eyal, author of the best-selling book "Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products," all of the most addictive products use what he calls the Hook Model to associate users' emotions and routines to a product, prompting them to return to it time after time, without having to resort to expensive advertising.

Thus, we need to “hack” these so that we are not prone to these external triggers to form the product’s desired habits.

2. We need to protect our children’s attention, mindset, and habit.

In this attention’s economy, all the advertisements and apps are trying to set up "real estate" in our minds and our children’s mind.

If we are not careful, our children’s mindset will be set up to focus on their online world, ignoring the other important parts of their life.

On top of it, some content shown to the children many times will normalize the behavior that is not in line with your family values, for example, violence, sexism, terrorism.

Once our children mindset has been changed, their behavior will start to change and you will realize that you couldn’t recognize your children anymore.

Today, we as parents need to be diligent. We have to protect our minds and our children’s mind. We have to find out what are our children are listening to.

By having consistent communications and education of Internet Safety and online habits, we know our children’s online activities and their thoughts about things they see on the Internet.

3. The Internet is not designed for children.

Here are the internet dangers to our children:

• Screen addiction,

• Inappropriate content,

• Negative social influence,

• Cyberbullying,

• Social Media Depression,

• Bad Digital Footprint,

• Online Predators,

• Identity Theft,

• Misuse of children’s personally identifiable information (PII), and

• Hackers and Scammers.

The Internet also has a lot of benefits, and it allows children to learn, communicate and find their passion from things that they can learn online, as well as get entertainment.

The struggle we have is how we find the balance between internet benefits and internet dangers without limiting our children too much from pursuing their passion/talents and exploring their digital era.

Here’s the good news. I have developed the strategies for you to achieve this balance.

You can look into my previous Brainz article, “6 Strategies To Digital Parenting Your Children.”

4. The future will be divided into 2 types of people:

1. The people who always have their attention being distracted or manipulated by others;

2. The people who can maintain their focus and attention and be masters of technologies to pursue what they want.

We wanted to teach our children to develop good habits surrounding the screen, being conscious about their use of technologies, and use the technologies responsibly.

Here’s the good news, with our digital parenting program, you can build a better relationship with your children and empowering your children to use electronic devices responsibly and staying safe on the Internet.

Here are some case studies of our students:

• Simona Condrachi, a parenting coach, a mother of 2 boys

• Roopa Tailor, a Montessori specialist, a mother of 2 girls

I hope this helps you realize the power you have in your children’s future if you choose to embark on digital parenting.

If we can help you establish a better relationship with your children while empowering them to use the Internet and technologies responsibly while staying safe on the Internet.

Would you be interested?

I am looking for responsible parents who love and care about their children and screen use / Internet Safety.

They wanted to build their children to be better future digital citizens, and they want to have a life-long lasting relationship with their children.

They want to become confident digital parents.

If this is you, click here to book a free strategy call with me.

If you would like help with reducing your children’s screen addiction and improving your relationship with them, join my free Facebook group to get immediate access to all of my free training.

Follow Jessie on Facebook for more information.

Read more from Jessie!

Jessie Liew, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine

Jessie Liew is a Digital Parenting Coach. As a cybersecurity expert, a mother of 4, she also has to face the same task as all parents, which is rearing safe & responsible digital citizens.

We are living in a digital era, and hence we need new skills to parent our children.

She’s been working in the cybersecurity field for more than 14 years. She also holds professional certifications in Cyber Security (CISSP, CRISC, and CISA). She has been able to shape the companies’ employees' internet habits as well as in her own children.

Her Mission: Empower Parents to nurture their children to use the Internet and technologies in a positive way while staying safe on the Internet. This builds the foundation of our future Digital Citizens. She is looking for parents or educators who want to nurture their children to be responsible digital citizens and build a great relationship with their children.