Teach your Children Well

While we have opened up the vast power of Emerging Media, the onerous task of providing guidance, direction, and advice still falls on parents. And this task has become much more difficult than ever before. Not only is there no road map to parenting, but new media is evolving daily at such a fast rate, that many parents are trying to master it simultaneously with their children's access. And in this race, parents cannot win. Our children just absorb media like a duck to water.

If fear is baked into our DNA at birth for protection and survival, the flip side is that so is trust and innocence. And so while we want to foster those glorious, short lived days of childhood innocence, we must also teach them caution.

In the continuing musical dialogue of William, Chris and Kati, I give you a classic - CSNY "Teach your Children Well". The song may be from the 70's but the lyrics are timeless.

 

Now "Do not talk to strangers" has become "Do not talk, text, or communicate via Internet or cell phone" with people you do not know"

So how do we encourage learning, exploration, and engagement in this new emerging media world without subverting their freedoms, destroying their joy of discovery or exposing them to harm? To protect children and their privacy, the FTC enacted and enforces the COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act). While this act protects Children under 13 by the law, the FTC also provides some really helpful tips for parents and educators on how to teach, monitor, and encourage healthy and safe interaction on the web and on social media sites.

The FTC Report Protecting Kid’s Privacy gives you a good guide to follow on the web, and the Social Networking Sites: Safety Tips gives great tips for Tweens and Teens.

A few of their pointers include:

• Check out sites your kids visit
• Take a look at their privacy policy
• Be selective with your permissions
• Remember that once you post information onlie, you can't take it back

and one of the tips for your tweens and teens:

• Flirting with strangers online could have serious consequences

As parents and marketers, teaching our children safe interaction with emerging media is not only an obligation, but a ethical mandate.

Be safe out there,

Cyndi