COVID-19 Lock downs & Digital Parenting
For the first time in the history of Humans, the normal life that each human led ended, and a new life dictated by COVID-19 kicked in.
A life where children are out of school, and parents out of their jobs or daily hustles, and all of them staying at home, “caged”. There are many questions, fear of the unknown, and challenges of human caging or containment at home.
The new life in the cages require adjusting to the space, and figuring out what to do with all the time in their hands, backed up by few or no recourse coming in.
In the cages, children are likely to spend more time watching various programs through screens that are available to them. Consequently, parents are probably, and repeatedly asking children to get off the screen(s). Both children and parents thus create a negative atmosphere at home, distancing the child from the parent every day. All the while, trying to figure out how to balance life in the cages for the first time.
Caged life requires new lifestyles approaches. One key feature of this life is the shear amount of time at hand, and with little or nothing to do other than turning to the digital gadgets, and listening to the Digital Villagers.
So, in this blog, I write about what parents can do to help their children navigate the Digital Village safely, because, restricting them completely, might not be a healthy choice.
At the top of the list, parents have to increase their knowledge about the Digital Village, so that they can guide, and parent their children from a point of knowledge. Parents will also have to learn basic skills that they can use to practically enforce safety for their children, in the gadgets they give to the children.
To this end, it means that both Skills & Knowledge about the Digital Village are critical for parents, in their journey of guiding, and building awareness of the Digital Village to their children.
Just how easy is it to get the necessary Skills & Knowledge for parents to better parent their children? Not easy, but it is doable.
Before a parent hands a digital gadget to their children, or as they mentor and navigate the Digital Village together, they need to consider the following:
Safety is key. Just as we help our young ones to navigate the villages we live in, or far away cities where they visit or go to school, the same principals will apply online. Parents normally do the homework about a place, and then organize that information to mentor their child before the sendoff. Sometimes parents visit the far away cities where their child is going to go to school. They familiarize themselves with the vicinity and learn from the locals about where one should or should not venture, how to stay safe, etc.
If parents take that much effort to prepare for a place where they can drive or fly to, what about a place where their child can get to by a click of a button, the Digital Village? More importantly, the Digital village is global, the whole world has access, and so parents must ask themselves, “How well have I prepared my child to meet all the strangers in the digital village?”
Your child’s ethics are an important skill for surviving in the Digital Village. Not being ethical online will put your child and other people in danger. Parents have to guide their children how their ethical behaviors prevent them from getting in trouble while in the Digital Village.
The issue of privacy is key in ensuring your child is safe on line. Privacy does not start with a visit to the Digital Village, it is something that parents teach their children on a day to day basis. How your child presents themselves at home, in school, in church, with friend’s etc., will also be transferred to the Digital Village. If your child gets in trouble all the time, the same thing is likely to occur when they visit the Digital Village. The only difference is that the impact is more severe when it is online, since it will be with people who you might never get to know, and who can do whatever they want with your teenager.
If you have noted, this brief is about developing character in your child so that they can withstand both the storms and highs, of the Digital Village.
The Josephson Institute of Ethics, (Aspen Declaration of 1992), which now serves over 8 million youth in the world with Character Counts formation declared that:
At the time of this declaration, COVID19 was not in the picture.
But, the times are here. As a parent, how have you prepared your child, your teenager ethically, for such a time as this?
Contact Dr. Emma Theuri for more information, on steps to get started, and coaching to achieve results.