LifeLock is a financial sponsor of National PTA, and has been invited to submit a blog post as part of their engagement with PTA. National PTA does not endorse any commercial entity, product, or service, and no endorsement is implied by this content.
Your kid says she’s doing homework online, but what’s really going on? Good question, huh?
As one mom told us, “My daughter’s school has an one-on-one iPad program, and every kid in the school (about 1,000) has a school-supplied iPad. I have to say it has been a struggle to try to teach her how to use the iPad responsibly, because they can always claim they are doing homework, while we know they are probably watching music videos.”
Given what I’ve experienced with my 14-year-old son, I know this parent isn’t alone.
That’s why we worked with National PTA to develop The Smart Talk. It’s a free and easy online tool to help you produce ground rules for how your child uses technology. Yes, you, as the parent, still have to be the enforcer. But by sitting down with you to answer a series of questions, your child has some skin in the game.
The end result, after about 15 minutes together, a set of rules you can post on the fridge so that everyone is on the same page.
The mom quoted above had The Smart Talk with her daughter and was glad she did.
“My daughter was reluctant to do it at first, but once we started, it was actually good. I’d like to see this adopted more widely.”
If you need an excuse to raise the issue with your son or daughter, we have one. October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, a great reason for you—and your kid—to take action to stay safe online.
And if it helps to start with a laugh, check out this video—kids talking about technology.
Cory Warren is the blog editor at LifeLock UnLocked.
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