Raising Children in a Digital Age
Dr Bex Lewis, Director, Digital Fingerprint;
Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing,
Manchester Metropolitan University
Cavendish School, West Didsbury
CC Licence 4.0 non-commercial
@drbexl
Image Credit: Stockfresh
16/05/17
http://bit.ly/CavendishRCIDA

Published by Lion Hudson
February 2014
*Italian (Nov 2015)
*Chinese (awaiting)
http://j.mp/RCIDAge

Responsibility?
“Social media companies have a responsibility
to protect people who use their technology,
and we want to hear what more can be done
to keep children and young people safe from
online threats.
This Government is determined to make
Britain the safest country in the world for
young people to be online, and to make sure
that everyone – including the public sector,
technology firms, parents and children
themselves – is playing their part.”
Karen Bradey MP, Government Internet Safety Strategy, April 2017
http://drbexl.co.uk/2017/04/20/media-discussing-responsibility-social-media-companies-re-safer-internet-ucbmedia/
Image Credit: Unsplash

http://drbexl.co.uk/tag/sid2014
http://drbexl.co.uk/tag/sid2015
http://drbexl.co.uk/tag/sid2016
http://drbexl.co.uk/tag/sid2017/
http://drbexl.co.uk/press/

Understand!
“If we want resilient kids we need
to understand what young people’s
experiences are online, listen to
their concerns, and intervene with
their best interests in mind.”
Jane Tallim, Co-Executive Director, MediaSmarts,
Canada, January 2015
http://mediasmarts.ca/research-policy/young-canadians-wired-world-phase-iii-trends-recommendations
Image Credit: RGBStock

All those negative
headlines…
Image Credit: Shutterstock

Is it the end of the world
as we know it?
Image Credit: https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2014/05/12/07/36/end-of-the-world-342343_960_720.jpg

Story: http://bit.ly/Rembrandt-phones

“Even though in practice,
face-to-face communication
can, of course, be angry,
negligent, resistant, deceitful
and inflexible, somehow it
remains the ideal against
which mediated
communication is judged as
flawed.”
Prof Sonia
Livingstone,
Children and the
Internet: Great
Expectations
and Challenging
Realities. 2009,
p26

Image Credit: via Facebook

Digital Culture: Why it matters
Image Credit: Pixabay

http://pennystocks.la/internet-in-real-time

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cb6IDRMW4AEkqH1.jpg

Children in
Digital Culture
Image Credit: Flickr

H/T @God_Loves_Women
http://drbexl.co.uk/tag/addiction/

Communicate, Communicate,
Communicate
Image Credit: Stockfresh

https://www.verywell.com/social-media-contract-for-tweens-and-parents-3288520

http://www.huffingtonpost.c
om/janell-burley-
hofmann/iphone-contract-
from-your-
mom_b_2372493.html

Practical Advice:
Privacy &
Permanency
Image Credit: RGBStock

To monitor or
not to monitor?
Image Credit: Stockfresh

Identity, Values and
Authenticity
Image Credit: Stockfresh

Just because you
can … doesn’t mean
you should!
Image Credit: Stock

Who sees this?
1. Parents
2. ‘Kids’
3. Newspaper
4. Enemy
Image Credit: Stockfresh

Human Beings
at machines,
not “are
machines”
Image Source: Stockfresh

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/well/mind/how-to-be-mindful-with-
facebook.html?smid=fb-share

Relationships (Online)
Image Credit: RGBStock

The Bullied
The Bully
The Bystander
Image Source: Stockfresh

The only thing
necessary for the
triumph of evil is that
good men do nothing
Quote commonly (and probably erroneously)
attributed to Edmund Burke

Digital Allies

BBC: Be Smart
“We’re doing this because all the research
tells us that children and young people
respond best to their peers. Whether they’re
under pressure to take part in a dangerous
prank, or to victimise someone, or whether
they’re an online bully themselves, stories
told by other young people are most likely to
resonate and to help them cope, or change
their behaviour.”
Andrew Tomlinson, Executive Producer, Media Literacy, BBC Learning
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/entries/f1f50247-4902-4998-bf58-3e2d3c007587

Increased time spent online will most likely increase
exposure to negative experiences – but also the
positive opportunities. Nancy Willard, a
cyberbullying expert, calls for us to work on the
“understanding that the vast majority of young
people want to make good choices, do not want to
be harmed, and do not want to see their friends or
others harmed”. We can’t control their whole
environment, online or offline, so parents need to
give their children the capability to deal with
problems as they come across them.
Raising Children in a Digital Age, p.63

Stranger Danger
2012/13
550 UK Abductions
Less than 1/5: unknown
“On average 11 children are killed by a
stranger each year in the UK … there are
more than 11 million children in the UK”
(Netmums)

Increasingly Mobile
Image Credit: RGBStock

Snapchat Streaks
Image Credit: Unsplash
http://drbexl.co.uk/2017/04/13/radio-discussing-snapchat-streaks-bbc5live/

Sex Talk
(Porn, Pedophilia and Sexting)
Image Credit: Stockfresh

Keeping within the Law
Image Credit: Stockfresh

Health Works
Image Credit: Stockfresh
Physical Setup
‘Nutritional advice’
Brain Changes
Multitasking
Conversational Ability
Couch Potatoes

The core signs of addiction
• The activity becomes the most important thing in a person’s life.
• Moods change in accordance with the activity.
• Continually higher doses of an activity are required to achieve the
original sensations.
• Withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety and depression are
experienced when the activity is stopped.
• Increasing conflict occurs with those in the closest social circle.
• There is a tendency to return to the activity after periods of control
(relapse).
• The “sunk cost” fallacy is experienced: not wanting to abandon
something after so much time has been sunk into it.
Raising Children in a Digital Age, p168
Listen: http://bit.ly/children-womans-hour;
http://bit.ly/premier-deloitte-addiction

Screen time and
family dynamics
Image Credit: Stockfresh
• Passive consumption: watching TV, reading, and listening to music
• Interactive consumption: playing games and browsing the Internet
• Communication: video-chatting and using social media
• ​Content creation: using devices to make digital art or music
http://bit.ly/common-sense-screentime

Gaming
Image Credit: Stockfresh
http://bit.ly/children-gaming; http://bit.ly/pokemon-children-churches

Does digital offer
(life) opportunities?
Image Credit: Stockfresh

Progressive responsibility
• Do it for them
• Do it with them
• Watch while they do it
• Let them do it for
themselves.
Will Taylor

Grandparents, teachers
& youth leaders
Image Credit: Stockfresh

Looking to the future
Image Credit: RGBStock

So… questions?

Event Price: £6.50
http://j.mp/RCIDAge
Presentation here:
http://bit.ly/CavendishRCIDA