A lot has been said about digital parenting. The challenges of raising today’s digital citizens is incomparable to how parenting was a generation ago. It has become haywire complicated. While we allow our kids to interact with the digital world, we still don’t fully know how such interaction affects them.
Yes, the digital age is here but we have to be mindful and thoughtful in our digital journey. The development of our children’s physical, cognitive, emotional, and social skills should be our priority in the crucial stages of their growth. That is from zero to 12 years old. Our children have their own pace and timeline as they grow. Ideally, they grow with the right amount and purpose of digital interactions.
UNESCO Asia Pacific recently presented Digital Kids Asia Pacific, a study which aims to gauge how digital the kids in Asia Pacific are. It used the Digital Citizenship Framework, which I helped construct in July 2017.
According to the study, “Digital citizenship is more than being able to use ICT in a safe way. It is about preparing children to become true digital citizens, with both the skills and the socio-emotional abilities to engage with digital technologies and other users in a critical and ethical manner while being aware of their own and others’ rights and responsibilities.”
While we are moving into a world where almost everything is digitally connected, we parents have a bigger role to play in our children’s development. For young children most especially, I agree with what UNESCO stated: “Embrace positive sides of screen time, but with caution!”
More than the length of screen time our kids are exposed to, we should look into the quality of materials they engage in online. We need to educate ourselves so that we can guide our children to use digital devices in ways that support digital citizenship without compromising their own development.
The more important recommendation that UNESCO puts forward for policy makers and digital media consumers is this: “Children should be encouraged to spend their time in a balanced manner that includes healthy physical and social activities.”
We can raise healthy digital citizens who will thrive well in the digital age. However, we have to minimize the risk and maximize the opportunities that the digital world has to offer. It is always a balance of both. More than knowing how much screen time to give, digital parenting is about taking cautious steps through balanced means. The key is developing real relationships. There is no replacement to the meaningful connections between parent and child. We must intentionally build them as our children grow. Cheers to raising digital kids!