Setting Online Boundaries for Kids and Teens
- David Dunstan, Family Zone
- Nov 15, 2017
- 3 min read
If a mobile device for your child is on your Cyber-Monday shopping list, you’re not alone. The average American child owns a smartphone by age ten, while almost half of kids aged eight and under own their own tablet.
Our children’s digital devices - from smartphones to laptops, tablets to gaming consoles - are portals to new worlds of information, entertainment and interaction. It’s an exciting time to be a connected family. But as parents of the digital age, we are learning that connection can be both a privilege and a challenge.
Boundary-setting: easier said than done
The first challenge is managing the sheer volume of screentime our kids consume. Is your teen online “almost constantly”? Well, so are a quarter of her peers, according to recent Pew Research. Kids under eight are already clocking in about two and a half hours every day.
Even more worrying, the online world has brought more overt dangers into our homes too - cyberbullying, porn, sexting, gambling, and worse.
As a concerned parent, you have probably tried to do some boundary-setting. But, as they say on Facebook, it’s complicated. Everybody knows consistency is key. Problem is, family life is not consistent - and the rules you confidently implemented on Friday night may have ended up bent or broken by Sunday morning. (We’ve all been there!)
Why is it so darn complicated?
Apps and devices may be equipped with their own parental controls. But talk about complicated! In a perfect world, we’d be checking our kids privacy settings on every app they are likely to use til they get to college. But who has time? Or even the know-how? With so many devices to protect, and clever kids who know so much more about the technology than the grownups do, parents are fighting an uphill battle.
And that’s just at home. Once your kids head to school - what then? Classrooms are increasingly connected too. And the distractions and potential dangers that go along with that are creating as much worry for educators as they are for moms and dads. Blocking social media apps on the school wifi network is one thing. But with virtually every schoolchild packing his own connected mobile device, the old-school “internet nanny” just doesn’t cut it anymore.
If only there was some parent-proof system that could handle all of this for you - that would keep your kids safe and happy and responsible online without you having to play the role of cyber-cop. If only you could get the control back.
Actually … you can.
Parental controls to the rescue
Thankfully for all of us, automated parental control solutions are now a reality. And there’s a whole host of mobile apps and connected systems parents can choose from to manage screen-time, block or filter content and even set device bedtimes. The best of these work across all devices - even the mobile ones - and coordinate across home and school, to give you peace of mind wherever your connected kids happen to be.
Yep, technology has created the problem, but with just a modicum of input from mom and dad, technology can solve it too.
Introducing Family Zone
Family Zone is the most comprehensive - and most highly recommended - online parental control solutions available today. Family Zone empowers parents to:
- Establish consistent routines
- Manage the amount of time kids are online
- Block inappropriate content
- Restricting social media
- Moderate online searches
Best of all, it’s so simple to set up and easy to use, even a grown-up can do it.
What happens when your children take their mobile devices away from home? With the Family Zone App, Family Zone will go too. Family Zone’s school-based system, School Zone, completes the circle of care, to deliver 24/7 roaming protection for children’s devices.
With Family Zone’s powerful technology on constant alert, you can relax. “The very best thing about Family Zone so far? Peace of mind,” explains subscriber Michael K.
“I finally feel like I don’t have to hover over my 8-year-old daughter’s shoulder at all times to see what she’s doing online. It’s such a relief to know that this device keeps her safe online.”
It takes a village
They say it takes a village to raise a child. And to keep that child safe online, it takes a community too, with close collaboration by parents, educators and experts like Family Zone.
So by all means, snap up those Cyber-Monday savings on new tech for the whole family. But give some thought now to setting some boundaries around screentime.
This holiday season, don’t leave your kids to their own devices. With an online control solution to share the load, digital parenting just got a whole lot easier.
