Not really! But I am emphasising about the importance of the media education
If I have to run another statistics on the important of media tech for the church and for community in general, I will certainly find a long list of importance. But my point here is how to make use of the technology with out or with minimum risk to our children.Below are, for example, Some suggestive ideas from class discussion as how to protect our children from becoming victims of technology.
Lists of rules: .
• Establish online rules and an agreement with your child about Internet use at home and outside of the home (i.e., at a friend's house, at school, at the library, etc.)
• Spend time online alongside your child and establish an atmosphere of trust regarding computer usage and online activities.
• Place your computer in an area of your home where you can easily supervise your child's Internet activity.
• Regularly ask your kids about their online friends and activities. Role play with your child various dangerous scenarios that they could encounter online.
• Implement software tools to protect your family from the intrusion of inappropriate content and sexual predators.
• Recognize that chat rooms are the playground of today's sexual predator. Do not allow your children into chatrooms.
• Block instant/personal messages from people you and your child don't know. Regularly check your child's buddy list to ensure that it has not been altered.
Sources: http://www.protectkids.com/parentsafety/4parentsonly.htm
I'm curious at what age you would expect to feel comfortable to allow your children or teens to use the internet without surveillance, ie in their rooms, etc. It seems unreasonable to insist on computer use in a common area once they reach a certain age, since so much of their homework is internet based. By the time my kids were in high school they all needed so much internet access that they had work stations or laptops in their rooms. To have had only one computer in the house would have been logistically impossible, especially with the adults in the home also needing many hours of access each day.
ReplyDeleteThis is very serious issue. There are also low income families who are jumping from one job to another to cover bills. This family even barley see their children or have much time with them. As you mentioned student usually take home a bunch of homework that they must use Internet to answer. For this and other problems, what comes to my mind as a solution is using outside resources. Like child mentor agencies. For example recently, I came across one nonprofit organization kinship who is working with children with ongoing mentor. Kinship is a local, 54-year-old community and faith-based mentoring organization, with a mentoring program that works! Please stop by their website at www.kinship.org and you may get useful resources Kinship has helped change the lives of over 1600 young people in Hennepin and Anoka counties. This is a huge impact. Read the below statistics also.
ReplyDeleteResearchers with Public/Private Ventures in Philadelphia (1992-1993) found that after 18 months of spending time with their mentors, kids were:
• 46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs
• 27% less likely to begin using alcohol
• 52% less likely to skip school
• 37% less likely to skip a class
• more confident of their performance in schoolwork
• 33% less likely to hit someone
• getting along better with their families and peers
The other resources could be also public library . Children can use public computers to do their homework and at the same time they will be monitored and assisted by librarian.
Any further idea please let us discuss on this matter in depth