Bunchland

Our parenting expert tells you what you need to know

There were some great discussions at our Social Media Week panel that featured Alyson Schafer, teacher Royan Lee and blogger Brad Moon. Our panelists didn’t always agree on everything, but brought different experiences with teaching kids how to work in the digital space.

Schafer thinks that of all the topics discussed at the panel, the most important were:

1. Deciding when and how to get your kid on Facebook

2. What the deal with gaming, is it good for your kid? Harmful to your kid?

3. And with everything going increasingly mobile, how do parents control what their kids consume media-wise?

What Schafer, Lee and Moon came up with was:

1. Re: Facebook — If you’re nervous about your kid getting on the social network, start off slow with a family profile. With your family profile, friend only aunts, uncles and cousins.

2. As for gaming, it really comes down to knowing what your kid is playing. Some parents see Club Penguin as gateway to gambling, others look at it as a virtual sandbox. Not sure what to think about World of Warcraft and its ilk? It’s big on collaborative problem solving, which seems like it might be a pretty useful skill as everything seems increasinly wiki-fied.

3. You can’t deny your kids technology just because you can’t monitor it as easily as you used to be able to. You’re just going to have to teach kids how to be responsible with it.

For more detailed responses to these queries, read Alyson’s blog.

Did you attend the panel? What did you find to be the most informative discussion? As a parent, what concerns do you have about your kids diving into the world of technology?

Photo by kateboydell via Flickr