Raising Children in a Digital Age
Dr Bex Lewis, Director, Digital Fingerprint; Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing, Manchester
Metropolitan UniversityMMU Foundation Year, 07/03/16
CC Licence 4.0 non-‐commercial
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Published by Lion Hudson February 2014 Chinese/Italian ediAons in process hCp://j.mp/RCIDAge
hCp://drbexl.co.uk/tag/sid2014 hCp://drbexl.co.uk/tag/sid2015 hCp://drbexl.co.uk/tag/sid2016
Understand!
“If we want resilient kids we need to understand what young people’s experiences are online, listen to their concerns, and intervene with their best interests in mind.” Jane Tallim, Co-‐ExecuAve Director, MediaSmarts, Canada, January 2015 h4p://mediasmarts.ca/research-‐policy/young-‐canadians-‐wired-‐world-‐phase-‐iii-‐trends-‐recommenda>ons
Image Credit: RGBStock
All those negative headlines…
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Is it the end of the world as we know it?
Image Credit: h4ps://pixabay.com/sta>c/uploads/photo/2014/05/12/07/36/end-‐of-‐the-‐world-‐342343_960_720.jpg
Even though in pracAce, face-‐to-‐face communicaAon can, of course, be angry, negligent, resistant, deceiYul and inflexible, somehow it remains the ideal against which mediated communicaAon is judged as flawed.
Prof Sonia Livingstone, Children and the Internet: Great Expecta3ons and Challenging Reali3es. 2009, p26
h4ps://twi4er.com/hanelly/status/405754162555944960/photo/1
Digital Culture: Why it matters
Image Credit: Pixabay
h4p://pennystocks.la/internet-‐in-‐real-‐>me
Technology: The Toolbox
Image Credit: iStockphoto
h4p://www.reddit.com/r/geek/comments/1zxyz2/social_media_explained/
Children in Digital Culture
Image Credit: Flickr
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
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h4ps://www.imom.com/printable/social-‐media-‐contract-‐for-‐kids/
Practical Advice: Privacy & Permanency
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To monitor or not to monitor?
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Iden%ty, Values and Authen%city
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Just because you can … doesn’t mean you should!
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H.A.L.T.
If you are Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired, step away from the keyboard/keypad and deal with that issue first. http://redcatco.com/communication/stop-posting-social-media/
Who sees this?
1. Parents 2. ‘Kids’ 3. Newspaper 4. Enemy
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Human Beings at machines, not “are machines”
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Relationships (Online)
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The Bullied The Bully The Bystander
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The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothingQuote commonly (and probably erroneously) attributed to Edmund Burke
Digital Allies
BBC: Be Smart
“We’re doing this because all the research tells us that children and young people respond best to their peers. Whether they’re under pressure to take part in a dangerous prank, or to vic>mise someone, or whether they’re an online bully themselves, stories told by other young people are most likely to resonate and to help them cope, or change their behaviour.” Andrew Tomlinson, Execu>ve Producer, Media Literacy, BBC Learning h4p://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/abou4hebbc/entries/f1f50247-‐4902-‐4998-‐bf58-‐3e2d3c007587
Increased >me spent online will most likely increase exposure to nega>ve experiences – but also the posi>ve opportuni>es. Nancy Willard, a cyberbullying expert, calls for us to work on the “understanding that the vast majority of young people want to make good choices, do not want to be harmed, and do not want to see their friends or others harmed”. We can’t control their whole environment, online or offline, so parents need to give their children the capability to deal with problems as they come across them.
Raising Children in a Digital Age, p.63
Stranger Danger2012/13 550 UK Abduc>ons Less than 1/5: unknown
“On average 11 children are killed by a stranger each year in the UK … there are more than 11 million children in the UK” (Netmums)
Increasingly Mobile
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Sex Talk (Porn, Pedophilia and Sexting)
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Keeping within the Law
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Health Works
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Physical SetupBrain ChangesAddictionMultitaskingConversational AbilityCouch Potatoes
Screen time and family dynamics
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Gaming
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Does digital offer (life) opportunities?
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Progressive responsibility
• Do it for them • Do it with them • Watch while they do it • Let them do it for themselves. Will Taylor
Grandparents, teachers & youth leaders
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Looking to the future
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Bounce Back?
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