Faith Filled Family Magazine November 2016 | Page 26

‘immigrants’ they are the ‘natives’. They probably know your
passwords already, so change
them regularly. Parents need to
implement a protective strategy
before your children down-load
apps. (This is also essential for
preventing online viruses and
hacking too).
How do we deal with our simultaneous attraction to, and
fear of, technology?
Technology is a reflection of
our humanity-it is either bad or
good, it depends on how we use
it. Technology gives us opportunities to improve our lives, but
if we are not careful, we can be
ruled by our dependence on it,
and that is when technology can
harm us and our children. There
is an increased need for people
to return to face to face contact
as they experienc e the emptiness of so called online-friendships, but we need to give our
children reasons to change their
communication habits of sitting
in front of screens before they
can do this.
The Circle with Disney box is
a great step forward in monitoring and protecting our children at home. But as so much
of their time is spent at school,
out of doors or at friend’s
homes, how can a parent proactively influence usage and
abusage of technology away
from their physical proximity?
‘Circle Go’ provides the same
parental controls on mobile devices as the home device, Circle
with Disney have developed an
app for phones, which is pretty
amazing. So we can limit usage
on 3G and 4G technology where
ever our kids connect with a local
Wi-Fi hub. Which means we can

to introduce content and time
controls. When the ‘the barn
door is already open’ so to
speak, how can you help parWhen a child is seeing and us- ents already in this situation?
ing ‘cool stuff’, they want to If we parents are addicted to
show it off to their mates, who technology and the stuff we
in turn want to do the same. use and watch, then we have
So how can parents neutral- to retrain ourselves first. Sayize the influence of peer group ing ‘do as I say not as I do’ does
pressure?
not command respect or trust.
By having a great relationship For example, we can get a $5
with our kids. We parents had alarm clock instead of using our
peer-group pressure too - which phones to wake us up. Put all
is just a form of influence - we devices to charge in one open
need to move from control to in- space at an agreed time every
fluence in our relationships - we evening. We need to do this first
do this by staying engaged with - we must model what we expect
them - not controlling - but influ- of our children - we can then
encing based on trust and re- make agreements with them that
spect.
based on trust. Ask yourself the
question. ‘Does technology conAs a father and husband I set trol me or do I control my techgoals for my family that helps nology?’
create a balance between my
work and family life. We have Have schools and colleges
four nights a week with no tech- shown interest in using Circle
nology. We are driven to be con- technology to help clean up
nected all the time with the world and restrict internet usage
but it doesn’t have to be like that. and even apply the principles
It used to be difficult for ordinary of ‘Parent Chat’ in the educapeople to find information, but tional process? If so what are
now we have access to every- they doing?
thing, so we must learn how to Yes –schools are wondering how
sift and digest that information they can partner with parents in
and decide when to limit the combating the dangers our chilworld’s intrusion into our lives.
dren are exposed too. We are
talking to them about implementParent Chat is a great guide ing Parent Chat principles with
for how best to combat the Circle in the classroom.
negative impact of smart technology, especially if a parent Do you think the companies
introduces guidelines and re- who design and sell hardstrictions at an early age, or ware and software of games,
before a device is purchased. apps and internet usage have
But with millions of older chil- a shared responsibility in the
dren, say 10 year olds through negative impact these techthe teens period already ob- nologies are having on our
sessed with their favourite culture especially within chilgame, app or chat site; it is dren’s lives?
going to be a tough process It is about shared responsibility
limit usage in friend’s homes,
shopping malls, and school playgrounds.