The beginning of another school year is approaching quickly, and as it does many parents are beginning to wonder how they can help their kids ease out of summertime media habits. In addition to having to establish new rules for media use, parents may also face a barrage of requests and questions from their kids regarding digital technology, such as: Am I old enough to have a cell phone? Can I bring it to school? How about my iPod? What about Facebook -- all my friends are on it, I need it to talk to them about my homework!
Here are some guidelines for dealing with media issues as your kids get ready to strap on their backpacks and head back to the classroom:
- Screen time. For many kids, summer is screen time -- whether it's TV, YouTube, video games or all three. A later bedtime often goes along with this, which can make reining in screen time even more difficult. The best approach is to start setting limits on screen time a couple of weeks before school starts, and impose a "screen and tech curfew" at least an hour before bedtime.
- For more information, see our Managing Television in the Home tip sheet and http://www.bewebaware.ca/english/compulsive_use.html.
- Cell phones and mobile devices. There's no easy way to say if a child is old enough for a cell phone. In general, smartphones are probably only appropriate for kids over 13, as are digital devices like iPads (and some iPods) that can be used to access the Internet. You may decide to let a younger child have a more basic phone, but you may want to begin with a plan that doesn't allow texting (kids' favourite thing to do with phones, and a likely source of conflict with teachers) or even one that only calls pre-programmed numbers. Either way, make sure your kids know their school's rules on cell phone use and discuss phone and texting etiquette.
- For more information, see http://www.bewebaware.ca/english/cell_phones_texting.html.
- Schoolwork. After two or more months of using the computer exclusively for entertainment, you kids' search and study skills may be a bit rusty. Spend a little time doing a refresher course on finding what you want (and avoiding what you don't want) on search engines and on telling the difference between good and bad information in blogs, websites and online encyclopedias. Go over the school's rules for Internet use, find out how the school communicates with students and parents online and discuss ethical issues like plagiarism with older children. If your school uses social networks (such as a Facebook page) to communicate with students but you think your child isn't ready to be on them, you can set up a joint account to use with them to access the school page.
- For more information, see http://www.bewebaware.ca/english/home_work.html
- The social scene. For a lot of kids, the beginning of school is also the first time they'll have seen many of their friends in months, and the return to the social whirl. These days that often means socializing online either through social networks or virtual worlds. Talk to your kids about how to avoid online drama, how to make good choices about things like tagging or posting photos and how to cope with the fear of being left out if they log off.
- For more information, see http://www.bewebaware.ca/english/social_networking.html and http://www.bewebaware.ca/english/cyberbullying.html.
ABOUT MEDIASMARTS:
MediaSmarts (formerly known as Media Awareness Network) is a Canadian not-for-profit centre for digital and media literacy. Its vision is that young people have the critical thinking skills to engage with media as active and informed digital citizens. Hundreds of resources are freely available for parents, grandparents and guardians at www.mediasmarts.ca.