A good friend of mine, Sarah Cook has a business that focuses on kids, specifically Raising CEO Kids.  With three kids of her own who spend a great deal of time online Sarah knows what it’s like to be a parent of a “digital kid” as she calls it.  Hear what Sarah has to say about raising digital kids and how being digital will affect their future below:

Cyberbullying is a major concern among parents as this issue can affect their children. When this happens, the best defense is for parents to be proactive when dealing with their kids and their use of the internet. Here are a few tips in preventing and mitigating the effects of cyberbullying:

1. Communicate with your child.

Keeping your communication lines open with your child and you will notice if there are any changes in his/her behavior. If your kid is usually cheerful then suddenly becomes quiet, there might be something wrong going on.

2. If there are any inappropriate material received, print it out and file it.

Even if it seems odd to keep contents which contain those hurtful messages, you might need to record it when your child is bullied online. When things escalate to a higher level, this information might be of importance especially when law enforcement appears in the picture.

3. Educate your child on how to handle a cyberbully.

The best thing that your child can do is to ignore the provocations from the bully. It will only lead to further trouble of your child responds to false accusations posted on social networking sites and blogs. If the attacks continue, let them discuss with you what they think and feel about it. If you have a clear picture of what’s going on, you can approach the right persons who have frequent interactions with your child. If in case your child doesn’t know who the bully is, you might need to take the case into a next level and contact the law enforcers.

4. Make sure that your child doesn’t participate in bullying.

You have to make this clear with your child. This is more important of your child has also suffered from cyberbullying. Kids think that being rude to others through an online channel makes is less significant that it is said in person. Make your child understand that on the other end, somebody also gets hurt. If your child has a strong will, he/she might make her friends realize that cyberbullying is wrong. Teach her that aside from hurting other people, your child might hurt in the process as a consequence.

For more information about Internet Safety, please visit the website www.internetsafetynews.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_L_Watson

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A year or so ago, I stumbled upon a series of PBS (Public Broadcasting Network) videos online that revealed how many kids are creating for themselves a totally different social identity online. Via the Internet they are able to escape their own seemingly (to them) boring lives and become someone they are not, but maybe they think that they want to be.

Whether it be a character on Second Life, creating an actual sex website that they get paid for, or they become known for their personality and charm that they may not show to those in real life. It is truly shocking what kids are able to do online that they might not ever do in real life.

The stories played out on these videos were stories of real kids who had gotten caught up in the web of the Internet and become someone else. In most cases, their parents were not aware of this at all, and in some cases the consequences once they were discovered were quite harsh.

Some of the things that kids can get involved with online are harmless, however do you know what “image’ your child is creating for him or herself online. If you haven’t taken into account what they are doing online and if you’ve never checked it out for yourself I’d urge you to start. While some kids merely use their online world as a place to be someone they aren’t in real life, others use it to boost their popularity offline. Taking semi-nude or nude pictures of themselves and displaying them online or sharing information about what they participate in, the possibilities are much scarier than you might guess.

As a former youth minister who has had much experience with teens I urge you to get involved. Don’t be afraid to ask your kids questions about their online activity. Always have access to their computer even if they have personal laptop or desktop PC. Always know their logins and passwords and be aware of where they “hang out” online. Don’t let technology scare you or get the best of you even if you aren’t tech savvy. If kids can do it so can you so don’t let that stop you from protecting your kid. Whatever you do start today being proactive about the image your kid is creating for him or herself online.

Being a parent of a teen or tween can be tough, I know, but fortunately in this technologically driven age there are so many ways you can connect with them.  Just this morning on the radio I heard that technology and computers is actually a great tool for parents to connect with their teens and I couldn’t agree more.  Whether it is texting them to find out where they are or connecting with them online through social networking sites such as Facebook, there are so many positives to using technology to connect with your teen or tween.

Maybe you feel like you are a little behind in the times when it comes to these new ways of connecting, but the good news is they aren’t hard to learn.  In case you are completely out of the loop and do not have a clue what Facebook is, I”ll start with the basics and walk you through.

Facebook is a social networking site, or in less techy terms, it’s a place online to connect with others by displaying info about your self including pictures, favorites, hobbies, etc and then befriending others who will communicate with you via your profile by writing you notes, sending you messages and so on.  You can connect and share through pictures, messages and even videos.

Facebook is very user friendly and has been used by everyone from teens to professionals.  You are sure to know someone on Facebook, so after you set up a profile it is almost certain you will make friends immediately and maybe even find old classmates to connect with as well.

However, more than anything, if you’re a parent it is a great way to connect with your teen, because let’s face it, teens and tweens of today, communicate through technology more than they do through opening their own mouths, and they have a whole other social world online unlike any other previous generation.

And though I am encouraging you to venture into this “world” of theirs I also encourage you to do so with caution.  Your child most likely will react in one of two ways,  they will happily befriend you online or they will wish you’d never found out about Facebook.

So, be careful as you begin this venture because you want this to be a positive experience for the both of you.  First you want to be honest with them, ask them about Facebook, even ask them to help you set  up your profile.  Let them know that you want to learn about it and need their help.

Do find other people to connect with, you don’t want your teen to think that you are only on there to snoop on them.  Be aware too that they have control over their privacy on Facebook, it’s privacy settings allow anyone to hide pictures, messages and more from those that they do not want to see it.  So, you may not be seeing everything on your child’s profile, but you can see what they allow you to and it may be a great way to find out things you haven’t known about them before.

Don’t try and befriend their friends on Facebook, unless they request that you add them.  This will cause your child much embarrassment so just lay low.   However, if your child or their friends want to befriend you, then by all means connect!

Facebook really can be a powerful tool for your relationship and can help you to see your child in a new and different light.  So, don’t let it scare you, use it today to enhance your relationship.

I didn’t own a cell phone until I was eighteen years of age, and even then my parents had me on a very limited plan. I had thirty minutes a month on my plan. Yes, you read that right, a month. The plan was to use my cell phone to call them when I arrived at college each week. It was only for safety and emergency purposes. You can probably guess I went over my minutes quite frequently. There was no such thing at that point as text messaging though so I didn’t have that to help me run up my bill.

Besides running up my bill, there was not much that I could do on the cell phone. It had no camera capabilities nor did it have the Internet. It was ancient compared to the cell phones of today. Today children as young as preschool are carrying cell phones, and not just any cell phone but smart phones, with not only cameras, but text messaging capabilities and an Internet connection.

Why is this scary to me? It is scary because of the power that they hold in their hands. Cell phones keep no secrets, the connections that can be made and the harm that can be done from them is mind blowing. Cell phones can now take pictures of just about anything and the pictures can be sent instantly to others. Kids are taking pictures of private areas of their bodies and multimedia messaging the pictures to each other. It doesn’t stop there, the kids that receive the photo message are then forwarding the photo on to other kids, or worse uploading the photos to the Internet. Literally in minutes your kids private picture could be spread around the world.

If this isn’t enough, the connections that can be made once they go online are even scarier. Child pornographers are out there lurking just waiting to pounce on an innocent child, or even one that knows a little more and is naïve enough to fall for some of their ploys. According to Newsweek, “One in five children ages 10-17 have received a sexual solicitation over the Internet.”

The power that our children have in their hands is frightening, and we as parents are the only ones that can do something about it. What will you allow to happen to your child today, or will you be proactive about the security of your child?

When I was a teenager, one of my favorite things to do was talk on the phone.  I can’t tell you how many times I begged my parents for my own line.  My own cell phone, well that wasn’t even “in my dreams”.  Sure, sometime during those years, my mom obtained a bag phone, but how was a teenager suppose to drag one of those around?

I actually didn’t get my own cell phone until I was in college, but you know what I am a little glad I didn’t.  The truth is, the way that kids communicate today is a little scary to me.  At least back in my day bullying took place face to face, and therefore it was a little less likely to happen in some crowds.  You could at least “avoid” the school bully and not hang out with those that may have “bad influences” upon you, but today, this is just not the case.

Kids today aren’t as lucky in these ways.  Technology though it has provided for them many technical advances, it has also created for them some difficult circumstances.  Unfortunately, kids are less tactful when they are using technology to communicate.  They text, write on Facebook or instant message instead of “talking on the phone” or talking “face to face”.  As a result they are actually more likely to bully someone, say hurtful things to someone, or even lie about someone.  They are also more likely to present themselves differently than they truly are, which can set them up for failure and heartache down the road.

These are at the not so cool things about kids using technology to communicate almost 100% of the time.  They don’t get that one on one feedback, they don’t sense and understand each other’s body language and how what they are saying is effecting the other person.  They don’t even think about what they are doing and the results that may be taking place.

This is the sad side of technology and as parents I think it is time that we step in and make our kids aware that there are real people on the other end of a text message, reading via the next computer screen, or out there in cyberspace.

Kids must be held responsible for their actions even if they are done via a keyboard or a cell phone pad.