by Dale Meredith | Feb 22, 2020 | Family Safety
Those who follow my social media channels know I strongly encourage parents to stay educated on the latest tech trends and popular apps as a way to help keep their kids safe and smart online.
Here’s an example of a couple of trends that parents of young kids need to be aware of.
We are all familiar with the sharing of memes to express what we’re feeling to be humorous, sad, or frightening. You know, these small short videos (typically 2-3 seconds in length on a loop) of a child doing something that seems like an adult reaction, or someone famous giving us an expression of shock.
The latest trend coming to life (if you can’t already guess where I’m headed with this) is creating memes that simulate (graphically) the act of intercourse. Memes that your kids will eventually be exposed to as long as the adult industry continues to thrive.
Please also be aware of avatars, (no not the James Cameron movie), there is a big push right now on apps that create a cartoon version of yourself. It’s cool technology; my kids have had fun with it. But, be aware there are adult versions of these avatars being shared and versions being created from pictures of maybe your teen participating in inappropriate behaviors and then being shared with others. Bullying continues to explode using advancing technology. Parents and grandparents, we must be in the know, we must stay educated on the latest tech trends to ensure we are equipped to best keep our families safe and smart with their technology.
I encourage you to click the link and ‘subscribe’ to our newsletter. Our newsletter is designed to help parents stay educated on the latest and greatest technology trends.
by Dale Meredith | Feb 21, 2020 | Family Safety
We shouldn’t avoid or shun technology, that is not realistic in this technology infiltrated world. It’s about teaching our kids what is right and wrong, what is age-appropriate, and what should be avoided.
Studies show that when a young boy is first shown a nude photo or drawing of a naked woman the first thing they do is laugh, or giggle. Even if the visual they saw was a piece of art. Their under-developed minds just don’t know how to react.
A young boy’s mind is pretty erratic and muddled. Yes, I’m speaking from my own experience and from the experience of raising three sons. If you’ve raised a young boy, think of all those times you heard your son awkwardly giggle when putting in uncomfortable situations.
We all recognize that laughter is often an emotional response to an uncomfortable or confusing situation.
As parents, we need to help our kids understand why they laugh or giggle, and we need to teach them that laughter is typically thought of as the acceptance of something. So their laughter or giggle or their ‘Hilarious’ text response, can be seen by others as acceptance of something that is inappropriate.
So this is a place where parents can and should lean in and prepare their kids. After helping them understand that the laugh or giggle shows acceptance, we need to provide them with ‘what’ to say, how to react, basically to equip them with the right words on how to respond before they get into those uncomfortable moments.
After having many talks about what is age-appropriate content and what is not my young son and I brainstormed together on how he could respond when presented with something he isn’t comfortable with viewing or discussing. A few ideas we came up with are:
‘Dude, not cool.”
“Why would you share that (or show that), -pretty lame my friend.”
Basically, just verbiage he can use (fingers crossed) to help him choose his response and not be caught off guard at the moment and end up responding in ways that might show acceptance of something he really isn’t comfortable within the first place.
by Dale Meredith | Feb 20, 2020 | Family Safety
Were you as shocked as I was? Well, today, sexting is pretty calm compared to what kids now encounter.
As parents, we must be aware and educated so we can teach our kids “how to react and respond’ when something inappropriate appears on their device.
I started having conversations with my youngest son when he was around seven, letting him know someone was going to show him naked pictures that weren’t appropriate for his age, or just not appropriate at all. We talk about how he might feel when he sees them, we talk about how sad and degrading it is and how pornography typically shows women as objects.
Back in the day, a typical kid’s first exposure to adult content came from a friend showing you a Playboy magazine, or in my case, me sneaking in to read my dad’s adult magazines. My wife remembers her first look at adult content; she and some of her 6th-grade girlfriends were playing at a park and found a cardboard box full of adult magazines.
Neither one of us were prepared in advance as to how we would react, or what feelings we might experience when seeing adult content as our young brains certainly weren’t mature enough to understand what we were seeing.
Back in that day, it was a rare occurrence for kids to be exposed to pornography at such a young age, so the need to prepare their kids in advance wasn’t on most parents radar.
We all know in today’s world, adult content is readily available to kids of all ages. Yes, you do have parental controls for your kid’s devices, (please use them!) never forget though, you cannot monitor or control what is on their friend’s devices, devices that might not be monitored with parental controls.
I strongly believe it’s the parent’s responsibility to EDUCATE themselves on the current trends and popular apps their kids use, to ENGAGE themselves in how their kid(s) use their devices and to PREPARE their kids for content and information they certainly will come across at some time or another while using their devices. These three actions are key to keeping our families safe & smart with the technology we use.
I encourage you to click the link and ‘subscribe’ to our newsletter. Our newsletter is designed to help parents stay educated on the latest and greatest technology trends.
