If My Parents Only Knew: My NBC KARE 11 Interview About Kids, Tech & Parenting

Last week Julie Nelson, news anchor on NBC KARE 11 TV, interviewed me as part of a series on parenting and technology entitled If My Parents Only Knew. Unlike my first appearance at KARE 11 talking about kids and technology, this format was not a pre-recorded story but an open interview for 15 minutes discussing some of my Top 10 Tips for Tech Healthy Kids. Once again, I answered questions from viewers through Facebook.

We talked about the importance of proactively sharing values and expectations with kids around technology, including keeping devices out of kids' bedrooms overnight and the great resources for parents available at Common Sense Media. We discussed the need for parents and adults to model a healthy balance with technology, including tech free dinners and being where their feet are. I also talked about the need to limit exposure to inappropriate material on our kids' screens by using filters both at home (I use Open DNS with Netgear Parental Controls) and on phones (I use and recommend Curbi). My list of tips and resources was shared with  the online audience.

The entire series for the week is a great educational resource for parents and included three other interviews about apps parents should know about, how technology is used to cheat, and revenge porn and sexting. You can view those interviews here. A big thanks to Julie Nelson and KARE11 for dedicating so much time to this important topic last week! Please make time to learn about these important topics, talk with your own kids, relatives, and/or students about them, and share these links and resources with others. Together we can all help keep today's kids safer, more healthy, and well balanced in their use of technology! 

Related topics:

• The Difference Between Educational & Entertainment Screen Time

• Be Where Your Feet Are: #RealTime with Those Around You

• Best Age for a Kid to Get a Cellphone with Internet Access 

• Five Ways to Raise Digitally Balanced JOMO (Joy of Missing Out) Kids in a FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) World

• Techcognition in an Attention Economy

• Over 1/2 of Parents Keep Digital Devices Out of Kids' Bedrooms Overnight

• Happy Sweet 16! Now You Can Snapchat. (34% of Parents Don't Allow It Until High School.)

• Curbi: Great Option for Filtering and Monitoring an iPhone/iPad/iPod

• Quick & Easy Cell Phone Web Filtering for Kids (*and limitations)

• Can We Autocorrect Humanity? Get Busy Living

• Parenting with Purpose in the Digital Age... It's Complicated

• Parenting in the Digital Age Part 2: How Much Should Parents Snoop?

• Technology & Relationships- 15 minute interview

• Crazy Busy: You Are Letting the Screen Strangle Your Soul

• New Year's Resolution: 3 Ways to Cut Back on Digital Distractions

• My First Apple Watch: Solution to Distraction?

• District Digital Citizenship Committee: Tonka Schools Campaign to Raise Awareness of Cyber Safety at Home

• What's in a Name? Digital Health & Wellness vs. Digital Citizenship 

• The Teenage Brain +Dementia of the Preoccupied

• Top 10 Tips for Tech Healthy Kids: Raising Digitally Balanced Kids

KARE 11 News: Helping Kids Make Good Digital Decisions

This morning I had the opportunity to be on KARE11 News as part of a story Helping Kids Make Good Digital Decisions.  The story featured four interviews with Boua Xiong from KARE 11, Minnetonka Public Schools parents and their children, and me.  We discussed a wide range of topics including what age is appropriate to get a cellphone, filtering and monitoring tools available, social media, and digital footprints.  I am so thankful for the opportunity to share tips and resources with so many people.  I was on hand in the studio to do a live Facebook chat for people commenting on the story and asking questions.  The reach of a televised new story is quite amazing to me.  By 7:30am, over 24,000 people had viewed the story on Facebook. Fortunately not all of them had questions!

During one of the four video segments, Cade, a fifth grade student, mentions how students in Minnetonka learn to T.H.I.N.K. before they digitize.  He brought it up on his own during the interview and recited the whole acronym from memory.  It was great and is evidence that the work the media specialists and teachers are doing to educate our students is really sticking!  

Digital Citizenship starts with education, but it shouldn't end there. Technology provides us with a means to limit the exposure to inappropriate material that reaches our kids' screens.  I also talked about the Curbi filtering app (more detail in a previous post) and shared my list of resources with viewers and the online audience.

This weekend 500+ people signed my online petition to Urge Cellular Carriers to Provide Parents with Content Filters on 4G LTE.  I hope to continue the momentum around this issue and get the attention of Verizon and other carriers.  Please join me in encouraging the development of tools to protect children.