KIDS AND ONLINE RISK: Don't panic
Advice from a cybertrauma expert
Many of us have given our kids access to devices and apps without fully understanding the issues.
The feeling of guilt and shame when parents realise they may have unwittingy allowed their child access to something harmful is not going to help us resolve the situation.
The advice from @catherine_knibbs, which she explains in her book Tech Smart Parenting, is that admitting our mistake and discussing the way forward is not only better than simply taking away the device; it actually opens the gate to having a much deeper and safer relationship with our teens.
Because when we admit we can't know everything, and that we are doing our best but sometimes get things wrong, our kids feel safer coming to us to talk about their own mistakes, problems and fears.
Yes, we parents need to create boundaries, but when we have an open dialogue with our kids about why we have those boundaries, we have a far greater chance of hearing when they're in difficulty and being able to guide them through what @catherine_knibbs describes as the 'digital cityscape'.
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