Youth ‘cannot live’ without web
The BBC links to a report by YouthNet, and I find two things interesting. First, the fact that one of the problem is parent’s ignorance, creating a deficit of guidelines:
Mr Jones thinks it is the parents who need to become more sophisticated.
“One of the biggest problems for children is not that they are vulnerable but that their parents don’t know what they’re doing,” he said. [...]
“It’s important that parents have full understanding of the internet and its risks – younger people need parental direction,” he said.
Another finding confirms what we saw in this past week-end’s Lift workshop with children in Champoussin, that there is no such thing as a disconnected device for youth:
“For young people the internet is part of the fabric of their world and does not exist in isolation from the physical world“
interesting…i totally agree that parents have to really guide & set healthy limits for their children, starting from a very young age…
as a parent of teens, i wish i had been more proactive with my own children from the very start in setting appropriate time limits, filters, etc.
although there are lots of positives, my own children have seen way too many strange/unhealthy/violent examples of human interactions, & I think it does shape them. i wanted them to be more influenced by the real world around them than a world through a screen.
the positive is that they are more connected to their cousins far away, more comfortable with a global world.
i guess we as parents have to be less in love with the technology than we are with each other’s well being, especially our children. :)
the technology should serve our humanity or human-ness, rather than we have to keep beating it back, just so we can have a clear & quiet space for healthy family life & conversation to occur!
I guess it’s all about balance (as usual), achieving the right mix between freedom and limits, between connection and disconnection
yes! sometimes easier said than done! :)