TechSavvyMama Presentation Resources

By Leticia Barr, former Sligo parent and teacher and founder of TechSavvyMama.com

Hi! Thanks so much for taking time out of your evening to join me for a conversation about parenting in the digital age last week. I hope you left the PTSA meeting with a new perspective on the technology in your home and the challenges that we face. 

Not all technology is bad! When we work with our kids, rather than against them, media and technology can be used to teach kids responsibility, exercise good judgement, and resiliency.

Here are 5 key takeaways from my talk:

• Stay current. Be knowledgeable the issues affecting our kids and the tools they’re using.

• Set expectations but also model the behavior you expect

• Remember there’s a big difference between active/productive and passive screen time

• Create opportunities for conversations and seize teachable moments to work through issues

• Make decisions based on what's right for your family

As promised, I wanted to follow up with some resources that might be helpful for continuing the conversation about technology in your homes.

Some favorite resources that I mentioned last night include:

•  Google Digital Wellbeing (free)—Use Google’s Digital Wellbeing 8 question assessment to reflect on your relationship with technology before you start a conversation with your kids. Google Digital Wellbeing provides tips and tools to help you achieve your personal sense of digital wellbeing. You can also have your kids take the interactive assessment!

• Common Sense Media— This nonprofit is dedicated to helping kids thrive in a world of media and technology and aims to empower parents by providing unbiased information, trusted advice, and innovative tools to help them harness the power of media and technology as a positive force in all kids’ lives. Common Sense Media is my go-to site for app, game, and entertainment reviews and they also have great age-appropriate articles about parenting in the digital age. Sligo is a Common Sense Media school, meaning teachers in every subject teach lessons about digital safety and citizenship Common Sense Media throughout the year.

• The Smart Talk (free)— An online tool designed to help parents create conversations and work with their kids to set ground rules about technology via a personalized and customizable contract. I highly recommend using this to create technology rules collaboratively and revisiting the site to update them as your tween or teen gets older.

• Bark (regularly $99/year for unlimited household devices but get 20% off for the duration of service with the code SAVVYMAMA. This code is also good to get Bark Jr. for free)— This application is a robust monitoring tool to help you stay on top of your kids’ online activity and communication without invading their privacy. It provides high level alerts for cyberbullying, sexting, potential drug use, acts of violence, profanity, online predators, thoughts of suicide and depression, and so much more across 25 social media platforms, texting, and email accounts and also gives us parents the tools to talk about these very hard topics with our kids. I know there were some questions about the data that Bark collects and I pulled this from their FAQs: We use SSL encryption on the website to present data to you and your children. All data analyzed is stored within an encrypted database, including backups. Security is a primary concern for us. You can rest easy knowing you and your children's data is secure. I like Bark because it’s comprehensive and easy to set up. If you’d like to know more about how it works and what kinds of things you’ll be notified of, you can read my full review of Bark here. Bark also monitors computer web browsing on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge — including website visits, searches, and incognito browsing — when you install the Bark for Chrome extension or Bark for Microsoft Edge extension on your child's computer. With the addition of a Bark Home device, you can also add screen time limits and filter computers' web activity — including online games, other browsers, and more.)

• Google Family Link (free)— Family Link lets you set digital ground rules to help guide them as they learn, play, and explore on their mobile devices. It helps ensure your child is accessing good content, keep an eye on screen time, and also see where they are. Read my full review of Family Link here.

• Life360 (free)- Life360 is a geolocation app that allows you to view your family members on a map, communicate with them, and receive alerts when they arrive at home, school, or work. It allows you to keep an eye on loved ones without requiring a response from them. While most find the free version of Life360 sufficient, there is a premium version that has more features for $50/year for unlimited devices but I highly recommend trying the free version first.

• Circle ($199.99 or $52.99 via Amazon) is a device that can help you manage screen time. It allows you to control the wired and wireless devices in your home so you can filter content, restrict downloads, and limit screen time. It works with your home’s WIFI and allows you to create daily screen time limits, tracks how long kids spend online across devices, and allows kids to view their time limits so they can learn to effectively manage their own screen time.

• Be Internet Awesome (free)— Created by Google, Be Internet Awesome is designed to teach kids the fundamentals of digital citizenship and safety so they can explore the online world with confidence. It includes free materials and resources such as classroom curriculum, Interland  an online game, as well as materials for parents to use at home with their kids to extend these lessons beyond the school day and into year-round learning. Read my full review of Google’s Be internet Awesome here.

With nearly 15 years of experience writing about technology and parenting, here are some posts I’ve written on TechSavvyMama.com and elsewhere that you might find useful:

• Talking to Kids About Digital Safety Topics:

•  6 Conversations About Digital Safety Every Family Should Be Having

• Considering giving your child a cell phone?

• Read my post What You Need to Do Before Giving Your Child a Cell Phone first!

• Why Getting My 11-Year-Old a Phone Was One of the Best Parenting Decisions I’ve Ever Made

• Safety & Privacy: 

• A Parent’s Guide to Digital Safety at All Ages

• Important Conversations to Have with Kids About Being Safe in the Digital World

• Screen Time: 

• 15 Ways to Unplug for a Few Hours

• 10 Tools That will Help You Take Charge of Your Digital Life

• How to Teach Your Kids to Unplug in Favor of Digital Wellbeing

• How to Talk About Digital Wellbeing with Your Teens

• Social Media: 

• Important Conversations to Have with Your Kids About Instagram

• Important Conversations to Have with Your Kids About YouTube Content

• 5 Ways to Keep Kids Save on YouTube and YouTube Kids

• Apps & Downloads: 

• Taking Control: Setting Boundaries to Keep Games Fun and Balanced

• Reputation & Respect: 

• Important Conversations to Have with Kids About Managing Their Digital Reputations

• 6 Questions Parents Need to Ask Kids to Reinforce Kindness in the Digital World

• How Kids Can Play Their Way Through Interland to Learn Digital Citizenship

• 3 Simple Positive Actions to Teach Tweens to Combat Bullying

Other tips for managing technology in your home:

• Keep devices charged with a charging station: Unitek 10-port USB Charging Station with Quick Charge ($54) allows you to charge up to 10 devices simultaneously while keeping an eye on them in a central part of your home.

• Invest in durable cables: If you want cables that will last, my picks are Ventev’s Charge Sync ($9.99 and up) because their colorful no-tangle cables outlast other brands and are available for Apple, Android, and USB-C devices. Tip: Assign a color per child and so when you notice there’s not a device attached to Johnny’s red cable or Suzy’s blue cable, you’ll know whose device is missing from your family charging station.

• Label your devices so they can be returned easily: Having In Case of Emergency (ICE) information on a phone is great BUT what if your device is found by someone who doesn’t know how to operate it or the device’s battery is dead? Labels are easy and help well-meaning people return devices to you easily! My family has been using Mabel’s Labels for years to label phones, Kindles, cords, charging bricks, USB flash drives, and more. They’re my favorite because they’re durable, customizable, have the ability to add a phone number, and they come in packs that feature different sizes to ensure you can tell your devices apart from everyone else’s AND help items make their way back to you in case they get left behind. 

Last but not least, I want to end with a bit of comedy for every parent who has had to endure a conversation with their child talking about video games: Brave Mother in Stable Condition After 40-Minute Minecraft Conversation.

I hope these resources are helpful! Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions and enjoy the rest of your week! 

-Leticia
TechSavvyMama.com
@TechSavvyMama

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