Growing Up in a Digital World

By Amber Covington  Rowan Public Library

Parents across the world are faced with societies changing quickly. Childhood is impacted every moment with outside factors such as television, internet, music, news, and many other ways children can be influenced. In our digital society, it is key for parents to be aware of the various ways children can be influenced with or without their consent.

Today, we use digital resources for almost everything. We have began to consult and store information digitally at an exponential rate. Do you still have a book of family recipes or have your stored grandma’s secret recipe on a hard drive as an image file? Have you had your retail receipts texted or emailed to you for backup references? Of course, most people are using online banking to keep track of automatic drafts and online payments. For adults, using digital resources can be a lifesaver when a paper copy is lost and it has no doubt saved an enormous amount of time and paper. Youth are quick at learning digital devices and the various ways they are introduced to technology is important. As a parent it is necessary to teach your child how to be responsible online and find reputable resources that can be trusted. One way to help ensure they are being safe is to teach them to ask permission to use the computer, discuss the dangers of giving out personal information online, and guarding their privacy online by not posting pictures of themselves on social media. To get more information about being responsible and safe online, the website Common Sense Media is dedicated to educating parents, families, and schools. They have monthly newsletters, blogs, and pages filled with suggestions for age appropriate movies and books, ways to share and discuss topics in the news, and how to practice online safety.

Today, most of our information is being digitally harvested from websites and preserved archivally. It is crucial for parents to be involved in how their child’s life is shared online from birth. Years of data can be saved, digitally altered, and shared without your permission. Parents actually are the first to create an online presence for a child. Posting images on Facebook or Instagram is quite common and an infant cannot control a social media account. Be aware, how you use technology can influence how your child will use it when they are old enough. For more tips and resources to keep your child safe online and ways to discuss current information in the media, please visit www.commonsensemedia.org. And as always, stop by the Rowan Public Library and check out a few books.