EDUCATION
HOW CAN WE HELP CHILDREN BECOME DIGITAL NINJAS?
One of the biggest issues for parents of adolescents is that most grew up in a world without 24-hour access to digital technology. How can we help children to successfully navigate the pitfalls of digital media when we ourselves feel like we are often operating in the dark? Heather Carruthers reports.
T
he Independent Schools Show in Battersea Park provided a useful platform for discussions
surrounding the pitfalls of growing up in the digital age and how best to help children manage their digital
use.Jenny Eastwood, facilitator at The Parent Practice, a company that provides parental advice and parenting classes, explained that the vast majority of parents feel that their children know more than them about technology and can increasingly feel out of their depth. “We hear a lot about the downsides of technology,” she said. “It’s addictive; children will be vulnerable to cyberbullying; they might see inappropriate images; they’re becoming desensitised; what’s it doing to our children’s brains?!“We can feel like we are in the middle
of a storm and are powerless to help, but that’s not the case.“Digital is here to stay. Our children will always live in a digital world, our job as parents is to turn our children into responsible digital citizens.” To better understand the adolescent
perspective and why children behave the way they do, Ms Eastwood went on to explain some developmental changes that occur in children’s brains during adolescence (around age ten for girls and 12 for boys).
What is going on in the adolescent brain?
• Peers become increasingly important with a growing detachment from parents
•
The area of the brain that produces
the feel-good hormone, dopamine, becomes increasingly sensitive. This explains why playing and winning a video game or attracting a Facebook like is so important
• • Teenagers are less aware of risk and so
can easily post something inappropriate without thinking of the consequences The importance of status grows – a need for ‘likes’ and ‘shares’
With this knowledge parents may feel
more sympathetic towards an adolescent’s needs for Facebook likes or their inability to put down a video game, but it is a difficult phase to manage. Ms Eastwood provided some practical tips.
44 | Relocate | January 2019
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