Is this you?    “My kids know more about the internet than I do…”

The internet is an amazing place and research shows that the outcomes for children are better is they benefit from connected technology.   Technology can:

• add to the child’s store of knowledge.
• online games can enhance teamwork and creativity.
• improve both visual intelligence and hand-eye coordination.
• households with computers perform better academically.  

However, we must be mindful that technology can affect children’s development.  Research has shown that it can:

• affect sleep cycles due to the blue light from screens.
• become a target or a perpetrator of cyber bullying, racist abuse or grooming.
• expose children to games which are becoming increasingly more violent and aggressive and younger children are beginning to play them.
• expose children to games which are now using clever marketing techniques to get children to spend vast amounts of money to improve characters within the game.

What can you do?

• set parental controls on home broadband.
• safe search on Google (& other browsers) & YouTube; child –friendly search engines.
• if your child is using social media then set up safe social media profiles that won’t share personal information.
• turn off geo location settings on devices.
• use the strongest privacy settings on social media.
• learn how to report / block/ mute.
• report inappropriate posts/content to the social media providers.
• think carefully about using monitoring apps that identify inappropriate behaviour.
• set time limits for using devices, especially on a school night.

Where you can go to get help: