Free apps and digital games can provide hours of entertainment for kids. And while you don’t want them to spend too much time absorbed in their screens, it can be convenient to have that kind of entertainment available while you’re busy cooking dinner or when you need your child to be entertained during a long drive. At least, it can be convenient until you end up with a huge bill that you weren’t expecting. But […]
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Teens seem to be geniuses and can absorb technology at a far faster rate than their parents. For parents, this can be quite scary as there are plenty of people trying to take advantage of naïve teens online. There are obvious dangers of your teen talking to a predator that wants to harm them physically. Teaching your teens about never meeting someone they met online without a parent present is important. Plenty of online friendships/relationships […]
As technology continues to evolve, many systems are being developed in order to track and monitor family communications and activity. These systems monitor family member activity, detect suspicious activity, and immediately alert you of results. Thousands of families around the world have noted this technologies ability to identify cyber-bullying, online predators, suicide prevention, inappropriate or unfaithful behavior. For a relatively low-investment and simple installation process you can equip these systems to monitor the digital activity […]
Can your 13-year-old use their smartphone at school? If they lived in France, they wouldn’t be able to. The French government recently passed a law that bans students under 15 from using smartphones, tablets, or smartwatches during the school day, unless assigned to by a teacher. This applies to more than just class time – even at lunch or between classes, students are forbidden to use their phones. What Does a Smartphone Ban Accomplish? Unsurprisingly, French lawmakers […]
Boredom is nothing to be afraid of. These strategies can help parents help their teens learn to deal with boredom without resorting to smartphone use.
Get a fresh start with screens this New Year! A new year means a fresh start, and many of us use it for self-improvement. For teens and families, though, it’s a good time to reconsider their screen use. Consider these five New Year’s resolutions for your family this year. 1. Make The Dinner Table Tech-Free This is a good resolution for families, because being distracted by your phone doesn’t become any less of a problem […]
Parents often need to monitor their child’s internet activity. The internet can be a useful resource for children. However, it can also be a dangerous place. Parents monitor online activities to protect children from the potentially harmful information available. This helps keep them safe. It also ensures that they are not spending too much time online. There are applications and programs across many devices that help parents do this. Continue reading this post to learn […]
If your teen is like many of their peers, they probably spend every spare minute with their smartphone in hand, texting and messaging, talking, playing games, or scrolling through social media apps. Do you ever wonder if anyone else is paying attention to what your teen is doing with all that time they spend on their phone? The answer to that question is probably yes. Take a look at some of the ways your teen’s […]
Many parents have concerns about their children’s screen use, and especially with how young children are when they first start using screens these days. These concerns motivate many parents to put limits on when and how their children can use screens, starting very early in life – even in the preschool and toddler years. However, as children get older, parents tend to relax those limits, and many parents find that once their child reaches the […]
Once you’ve decided that it’s time to allow your teen to have a smartphone, the next question is, which phone? Your teen likely has some ideas, probably based on what kinds of phones their friends are using or what features they want. You may have some ideas yourself, based on price or the limits of your existing phone plan. But one question you shouldn’t forget to ask yourself is this: which phone is safer? Which […]
Does your teen need more sleep? Sleep is an important requirement for anyone’s health, and teens need a lot of sleep in order to keep up with their rapidly developing brains and bodies during this stage of their life. It can be harder than you think for teens to get as much sleep as they need. Today’s teens have busy schedules and a lot of different things that may be on their minds. And there’s […]
Many parents of teens feel that once their teens get a smartphone, the device quickly becomes almost a new part of their bodies. Some teens seem constantly glued to a screen, even when they should be sleeping, eating, or studying. And unless you’re constantly looking over their shoulders, it can be hard to know what exactly teens are doing on those screens. How do teens really use their phones, and what should you be doing […]
For teens, getting a driver’s license and the keys to the car for the first time can be an exhilarating experience. Many teens see the ability to drive solo as an important rite of passage. Parents may also see driving as an important milestone for their teen, but it’s often a frightening one as well. It’s well known that inexperienced teen drivers are more likely to have accidents than most other groups of drivers. There […]
When you think of the effects of smartphone use on your teen’s life, you’re probably thinking about the social media apps that your teen uses, or maybe gaming or shopping apps that cost money or distract your teens from other pursuits. What you may not be thinking of is the texting function on your teen’s phone. But there’s reason to be concerned that even if your teen isn’t obsessed with apps, that they may be […]
It’s not uncommon for things on the internet to be not quite what they seem to be. On social media, people tend to post carefully curated snapshots of their lives, showcasing the exciting or beautiful parts and leaving out anything that’s mundane or ugly. However, most of us assume that the people we meet online are real people, even if they’re highly selective about what they share about their lives. But what happens when an […]