(Times of India – NIE (Newspaper in Education) Coverage on 2nd December 2014
The Editor’s Blog on Kidsfreesouls is a thought space and happennings in just a busy schedule and multiple professional events.
However, picking through the gaps, here comes the recent Activity – a Parenting session that I conducted at Poieses Foundation on ‘Safety of Kids on Social Networking websites and Influence of Technology’ on 21st November 2014.
Poieses is an institution focusing on child development, established with the objective of motivating young people towards Accomplishment. ‘Poiesis’ is a Greek word meaning ‘to create/ to make’. Our guiding philosophy is to contribute to society by developing our young children and youth into Powerful, Determined and Happy Achievers, says Director Beena Handa.
While talking to Beenaben, our first concerns were Children and their Safety on Social Networking Websites and the Influence of Technology. In a Digital Age, the Influence of use of computers, gadgets and games has a wide impact on lives of people, esp. children and moms. Family time is less together in cozy library after dinner but more TV and now, computers, mobles and games being explored with less communication and more engrossed in Technology use. A routine schedule is checking in whatsapp, facebook, emails, playing games or being connected to Internet.
My Parenting session earlier at Gems Genesis International School threw some light to Positive Parenting with ‘Hands on, Hands Off and Half Hearted Parenting Lifestyle.’ The need of this session was to highlight the use of Social networking sites esp. Facebook and Twitter. It is noted that more and more children all over the world below 13 years are connected to Facebook. 78% Parents know about this and the kids have their accounts on FB. The problem is the Parents have not done the ‘Privacy settings’ nor do the kids know the way of the web. It is also noted that Pew Internet Project report reveals that 93% of teens ages 12?17 go online, as do 93% of young adults ages 18?29.
My Parenting session at Poieses was about Digital Parenting in the age of technology use in homes and schools. My session was on Safety of kids on social networking sites and use of Technology – also talk on gadgets use, parental controls and parenting tips. The Positives and Negatives of using Technology, the bullying and cyber crimes, the Parenting Controls, safe web search engines, games to select, parenting tips to routine behavior patterns and lifestyles, etc.
Digital Parenting is the need of the hour. Making children Digital Independent needs to providing a rich and engaging environment for your children to learn and grow online.
You may never be fully fluent in the tech world, but good parenting transcends boundaries. Real world or digital world, it is your voice that your child needs to hear, and you are the one who can best guide them through it all.
Navgujarat Samay Coverage on 30th November 2014
DNA Coverage, 5th page on 24th November 2014
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