Faith Filled Family Magazine November 2016 | Page 25

amount of time they spend online
and to trust parental wisdom and
our knowledgeable concerns of
what they look at. Matt’s credentials show he is well qualified in
communication skills, the best
ways to use technology to benefit society and as a Christian parent, he has learned the hard way
that he is responsible for what
his children see, how they spend
their time and to know what risks
they may be exposed to on the
Internet.
Matt skyped me from his smart
phone whilst sitting in his car
in Atlanta! What inspired you
to write Parent Chat?
I began to notice my nine-yearold son was ‘acting weird’, so
instead of just saying ‘what is
wrong with you?’ I asked, ‘What
was the most interesting thing
that had happened to you today’.
The answer I got back shocked
me and broke my heart. He replied, ‘Dad, Superman and Wonderwoman take off their clothes
sometimes.’ This was just the tip
of the iceberg and made me realize how easily we can be disconnected from our families.
You talk about parents asking
the wrong questions about
how kids will use technology.
What does that mean exactly?
I call parents digital immigrants,
we use smart technology that we
don’t really understand, whereas
children from as young as three
are digital natives, so we need to
reassess our usage and skills of
the technology our children take
for granted. We need to look

through our children’s eyes.
For example we can ask, ‘can
you teach me how?’ instead of
‘what are you looking at?’

then become fearful about
how to deal with these issues
or worse become disengaged
from their children. We must
first give our children a ‘permit’
How can parents use a prod- like when we first learn to drive
uct like ‘Circle’ to help pro- a car. They are not ready yet to
tect their kids from apps go it alone, so we agree to one
and technology that may be app at a time, what they can
harmful to them?
use and for how long; remem‘Circle’ can record and monitor bering we should scrutinizing
all the apps we and our chil- the app first. Then when know
dren use. It also monitors how the app’s content and we see
much time is spend on differ- our children can be trusted,
ent devices and what content we allow another app and so
is seen. By parents being able on. This helps to protect our
to access this information from children, and gives us peace
just one source, it enables our of mind and strengthens a
families to make wise choices more trusting relationship too.
to create a healthy balance between being entertained in the Parental Controls should
virtual world and living the real not just be a reaction – they
world of our relationships.
are more effective when we
are pro-active. Can you disYou suggest creating a cell cuss this a bit? And how do
phone agreement including you feel about allowing your
a ‘buy one, get one’ process. kids to know your passTell us about these strate- words?
gies?
If possible start when they
This is about expectations. If are about three years old,
we are saying, ‘go at it, down- by the time they are 9 or 10,
load all the apps you want’, they will more adept at using
how can we understand the technology than most parrisks involved? Parents can ents! Remember we are the