The digital world and our children’s/teenagers’ well-being

Children and teenagers accessing the online world, digital platforms, and social media, is a completely new curve ball that us parents are learning to navigate. It’s safe to say that we are all in the Learning Pit in this parenting domain. We all know there are benefits and risks associated with digital technologies, for our kids. The best advice around parenting children with technology, that sits well with me, is from Dr Justin Coulson. He explains that exposure to technology can be thought of, as teaching children to swim. We wouldn’t just throw them in the ocean and hope for the best. Firstly, we would be in a gated pool, in the water with the child and likely to have a swimming teacher in the pool as well. We would be teaching our children skills and safety responses and the risks of the water. Then we get out of the pool, still gated but still have a swimming teacher supporting our child. As, independence, skills and awareness of risks grow, our children can then swim independently in the safety of a gated pool. Lastly, they swim in the ocean. 

For me, the safety gate of technology is parenting control software like Qustodio or Bark

Here is a snip from Qustodio and the link Parental control and digital wellbeing software | Qustodio

To support you with your coaching skills of technologies, Justin Coulson has a webinar supporting parents in this area. Please, find an email from me with the login details and password to access our school membership and this webinar. Here is a snip and description of the pre-recorded webinar that you can listen to at your leisure.

Happy swimming!

Katrina Ballantyne

School Guidance Counsellor