The Desensitized Generation
The first time I watched Wizard of OZ, I was terrified of the Wicked Witch of the West and her flying monkeys. When my kids watched it, they thought it was pretty lame. Someone reminded me of a similar experience with the movie Jaws. When they watched Jaws the first time they were terrified and were reluctant to go swimming in the ocean again, but when their kids watched it the reaction was “this is supposed to be scary?” It’s apparent kids seem to have a different measure of what is scary, sexual, and violent these days. Tweens and teens may also think that wild girls, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Paris...
Read MoreInternet Safety – A Public Health Issue?
Last week, the team at ScreenRetriever attended the Family Online Safety Institute Conference in Washington D.C. People from all over the world, from many different areas of Internet Safety joined in the conversation- including policy makers, educators, mental health providers, internet safety and industry experts. It was evident at this year’s F.O.S.I conference that internet safety is beginning to be recognized as a public health issue. Given the risks associated with internet usage by our children such as obesity, sleep deprivation, cyber-bullying and that the goal of public health is to protect the...
Read MoreCreepy neighborhoods online…do your kids visit them?
You wouldn’t take your children into areas of the city that leave your skin crawling because they’re so unsafe, yet kids are venturing into these creepy neighborhoods online. If parents knew that their children were going to these unsafe, creepy online neighborhoods wouldn’t they try to prevent it? We teach our kids at a very young age not to talk to strangers, but many tweens and teens are going online to video chatrooms that encourage kids to talk with strangers such as Chatroulette or Chathopper via webcam. When I visited these websites to see what they were about I immediately saw adult material...
Read MoreParenting online when your child has a computer in the bedroom
According the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2009 36% of children ages 8-18 had computers in their bedrooms, 33% with Internet access. This is a huge change from 1999 when only 21% of kids had computers in their bedrooms and 10% had internet access. Computer usage with children and teens continues to change rapidly. In fact, some schools are beginning to provide laptops for each student and they are bringing those laptops home and want to use them in their bedrooms to do homework, play games, Skype, and go on Facebook. We all know that interacting online with their friends is what Tweens and teens love to...
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