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Teenagers and Personal Security Online
In some ways, the internet is safer than “real life” socializing – after all, your teen is not outside on the street after dark; he or she is camped out in front of the computer in your own home. But the internet also poses certain dangers. Teens’ personal information can be obtained and their identities stolen, or they may become victims of cyber bullies. Following are some tips for personal security online for teenagers.
1. Make sure your teen only sends credit card information through secure sites. Check the URL to make sure. Many anti-virus software programs will detect insecure sites and warn you.
2. Think before your share. Teens are often reckless, and don’t really comprehend the potential consequences of their actions. Therefore, it’s a good idea to have really clear guidelines as to what your teens can and can’t share, so your teen does not have to use his or her judgment each time he or she has something to share. Your rules could be as simple as no picture sharing unless Mom or Dad has seen the picture, or it could be more detailed, such as a list of things your teen is allowed to share online.
Another thing to keep in mind with regard to sharing photos is the issue of bullying. Your teenager should be aware that anyone can take that picture they’ve posted and use it to make fun of or otherwise defame them.
How to Stop the Cell Phone Wars
So many teenagers the country over have cell phones. Either theyíre talking on them constantly or using text messaging to communicate with friends. While you want them to be able to stay in contact with friends, you probably also want them to stop spending so much time on their cell phones.
There are a number of good reasons why teens need to stop using their cell phones and itís not merely because Mom and Dad tell them to. In fact, ongoing research concerning cell phone usage has proven how these phones can actually be hazardous to your health.
You may have heard the stories going around the internet that says using cell phones could result in brain damage. There isn’t any hard proof of this but there are some other studies that indicate spending too much time with a cell phone to your ear could disrupt a teenager’s sleep.
Protecting your Kids on the Internet
We hear of online predators all the time. You hear about things you can do to protect your children. Have you done them? We have two children that use the internet every day. Below are some of the rules we use that can help you make sure the internet is a safe place for your own children.
Make sure an adult approves adding an email address. Don’t allow your kids to send emails to people they don’t know, or subscribe to emails on websites. This can send junk mail to your children’s email box. Junk mail can contain information you do not want your children reading, as well as links to websites.
Keep the computer in a visible place in your house. If your children are surfing in private, you don’t know what they are viewing. It’s so easy to find bad stuff on the internet. Make sure you can see what your kids are visiting.
Go in after your child has gone to bed and check the internet history to see what websites they have visited. If you feel like they have been sending inappropriate emails, you can check their email also. You can see what they have sent and what they have deleted.
Provide a list of favorites for the websites they are allowed to visit. If they have heard about a new website, check it out first to make sure it is kid friendly. Don’t allow them to search through Google or another search engine. Making sure they stick to the approved list increases the odds that their internet viewing will be safe.
Following a few suggestions can help ensure that your children are safe when online. Our children live in a different world from the one we grew up in. Make sure they are safe.
Teaching about the Internet
Kids today have a different perception of the computer and the internet. Children in elementary school are being taught how to use a computer. Some school reports require internet sources. Teaching your children about the internet and setting some rules will help keep them safer.
First, help your children understand that seeing something on the internet doesn’t make it real. Friends that they meet might not really be children. Help them to understand how the internet makes everyone anonymous. Anyone can create a web site and make their information appear as fact.
Cell Phone Etiquette – How to Teach Your Kids to Use Them Responsibly
Teaching your child to say “please” and “thank you” is usually second nature; it’s been done for generations and comes pretty naturally. But teaching your children how to use a cell phone responsibly – that is, how to exercise proper “cell phone etiquette” – may be a bit more of a gray area.
As public cell phone use continues to increase, a set of general, behavioral guidelines is beginning to take shape. Here are some tips on how to teach this important lesson of proper cell phone use.
Privacy
When you’re on a cell phone, it’s easy to forget that you aren’t the only one in the room. Teens may get caught up in a cell phone conversation that should be private, but it becomes quite public as they chat away in a public area. Remind your kid that private conversations should take place behind closed doors. You might even give him or her a phrase to use that can be called upon when a cell phone conversation needs to be curtailed temporarily.
Sassy kids watching sassy TV
Have you heard? Sassiness is in fashion among the 8 to 16 year old crowd. Sarcasm, subtle insults and put-downs, and conversation stopping one-liners have become the conversational style not only in kids speaking to each other, but interacting with parents as well. “Mom, you really don’t have to get out of the car when you drive me to soccer, …especially in your mom jeans.” Ouch. With 71 percent of 8 to 18 year olds having their own TV in their rooms, doesn’t it make sense that some styles of parent child communication are being influenced by the way kids talk to parents on the tube? Take dads for example.
Surprising Videogame Benefits
Video games have been linked to violence, poor school performance, behavioral problems and addictive behaviors. But recently there have been studies to use videogames to improve mental health. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a standard form of psychotherapy to treat mild to moderate depression. In CBT, patients are taught to change their negative thoughts and behaviors by changing the way they react to behaviors. A new videogame called SPARX (Smart, Positive, Active, Realistic, X-factor thoughts) is a game that a player navigates through different fantasy worlds. In one level, the player is attacked by blobs of GNATs(Gloomy Negative Automatic Thoughts), the player must shoot these blobs and put them into barrels by the type of negative thought. This process helps the patient identify these types of thoughts that creep into their own daily lives. At the end of the study, one-third of the patients experienced a reduction in anxiety and depression. More patients achieved remission from depression than routine treatment. This video game may help patient who may otherwise not receive treatment for depression due to lack of insurance or access to care.
Other benefits have shown that videogame players make decisions 25% faster without losing accuracy. In addition, they are able to multi-task up to six tasks while most people can multi-task up to four tasks.
Video Game Addiction, Obsession, or Habit: How Much is Too Much?
I am often asked some variant of this question, and a few of my recent cases have stimulated me to explore more evidence-based answers to improve the quality of my response. As it turns out, many have written fairly extensively on the subject of how much video gaming is too much. It has been proposed that two to three hours per day of playing the games is now an average amount of time for the average adolescent to play video games or spend time on the computer (APA Task Force, 2008).
There are many reasons for parents to be concerned about their child’s seeming obsession with video games, and the amount of time that their children are playing them. Initial concerns were that the games, which were largely played by adolescent males, stimulated aggressive instincts and increased the likelihood of violence in the, again, largely, male population who played the games. These concerns were fueled and heightened by the massacre at Columbine, Colorado, on April 20, 1999, in which two high school students went on a killing rampage. These two students had reported that they spent a great deal of time playing “Doom,” a gory video game with a great deal of violent and aggressive themes. It was also inferred that the boys had spent a great deal of time watching violent movies–which may inspire another article at a later date.
Cell Phones – When to Consider Buying One for Your Kid
It used to be that kids begged their parents for a phone in their rooms. Now, parents are asked to make a different decision: whether or not to buy their kids a cell phone. How do you know when or if they’re ready? What age is too young? These are just some of the questions that parents have to consider regarding a cell phone for their child. Here are some suggestions that may help, and some things to consider as you make this decision.
Plugging In and Quality Time with Kids
How many times have you been annoyed when the people around you are talking on their cell phones too loudly or texting during a movie or performance. Well, imagine how our children feel when we are taking time away from them while we are too busy with our phones, iPads or laptops.
It’s not unusual to see a parent pushing a swing at the park and talking on the phone. I have also seen families at restaurants sitting silently while each one is either texting or checking for messages. Imagine the message this is giving a child . ”I am more concerned about my life than yours”?
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