Raising Digital Natives: Navigating Parenthood in the Digital Age
Being a parent is not easy at all. Its a full-time job that requires parents to be on top of their children’s activities, mental and physical states amongst other things. It might not be passive, but having human beings you made running around that depend on you fully is a full-time job.
Being a parent in 2025 is even more difficult with a myriad of technological gadgets all around us. This is not the first time that technology has been in the home. Far from it. Homes from long back used to have technology around. Things like kitchen gadgets became common place, having dishwashers, having toasters, or microwaves ovens. In the lounge, dad would have his shining VHS player or record player and it would sit in the best place in the lounge and would be enjoyed by everyone. If you wanted to watch a movie, negotiations started first as to which movie to go and rent out, then finally with everyone sitting down to watch the movie. Everything was good and technology was centralised, and more for grownups than the kids themselves. Kids had toys to play with, and their bikes and skateboards.
Then things changed in the late 90s. The internet became a living thing. Smartphones became an everyday thing in the 2000s. And then parenting went from being difficult to requiring divine intervention to get it right. Because for the first time, parents were faced with technology were the kids knew more about the technology more than the parents did. This is a conundrum for the parents as its difficult to control and monitor what a child does when you don’t know what they are doing or with whom.
Children now can download and use apps on their phones. A phone is a personal device which everyone carries around. Instead of sitting around the lounge watching movies together, kids today have a whole list of app where they can watch movies from. This includes services like YouTube Movies, Netflix, Stan, Disney Plus and whole lot others. And since all of this is available from their mobile phone or tablet, they really don’t need to come sit in the lounge to access technology. They can just sit in their rooms whole day as long as the Wi-Fi is on. In addition, parents have no easy way of knowing what they are doing on the phones or whether what they are doing is safe or not. Add social media apps to the mix and it can quickly become overwhelming.
Google Play store and Apple App store all have about 2 million apps each. All of which are mostly compatible with almost every phone. This is a big number for parents to track. And their children can pick and choose any and install them. And most apps are online apps which are connected. Some apps allow communication or chatting via text or voice. And the parents will have no clue who these people are who are texting their children. This, for a parent is a scary thought.
What can parents do to keep their children safe?
Its not all gloom and doom despite what i painted above. Parents to some extent have tools that they can use to help them manage their children’s mobile and online activities. I’ll even write another article in depth for one of the tools which I have been using for years that give me peace of mind knowing that my children. In addition to this, the tried and tested method of communicating to your children the threats of being online are goes a long way in conscientising our children to be alert even when you are not there.
Open communication
Have conversations with your children about being safe and secure when using their mobile phones, gaming consoles, smart tv, smart watches and so on. Make your children understand that when dealing with people online, they might not be who they say they are. When they think they are chatting to a 9 years old friend from around, they might be chatting to a 42-year-old Russian or Ukraine hacker sitting in his basement. Also make them understand what cyber bullying is and how they can identify it and report it.
Parental controls
Most devices like Wi-Fi routers, smart TV, gaming consoles even some apps and app stores have parental controls. Parental controls are tools that allow parents or guardians to manage and limit a child’s access to digital content and online activities. They help protect children from harmful or inappropriate content and can be customized to suit a child’s age and maturity level (Esafety Commissioner )
One particular tool I have used to help me and my kids has been Google Family Link. I will be writing another article on how to use it and how much of a help it has been to us as parents.
Educate yourself
Research and reading about the trends that children are following is a good way to stay ahead or at least stay in the game. Reading articles online on safety and how to keep your kids safe is recommended. Here in Australia we have the eSafety Commissioner and they make available for free lots of information useful to parents. These can be safely used everywhere instead of just Australia. Feel free to use them as needed.
Establish and agree on rules with your kids
Agree with your children on device limitation, screen time and general etiquette around using their devices. This can be as simple as no devices after 8pm or a list of apps that are banned in the house. These discussions will vary and differ depending on the ages of your children.
With these few tips, hopefully parents can still keep up with their children in this day and age of a thousand screens.
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