Children and Technology: Three Steps to Ensure your Kids are Being Safe and Responsible Online, On the Computer, and While Using Social Media.

As technology becomes more important in everyone's lives (parents and kids alike), it is important to know how to limit and restrict a child's technology usage. Follow these three tips for keeping kids safe as they learn to use technology from cell phones to social media in a responsible way. 

Whether you like it or not, technology is present in your child’s life in a very significant way.
 
As the last generation of parents not having grown up in a technological world, we tend to think of computers as we think of TV for our children: less is the better.
 
Our children, on the other hand, are completely immersed in technology. They are developing a different way of learning than our own. As a result, children are becoming more visual in their learning, and exercising different reasoning skills. Compare, for instance, a rotary telephone to today’s cell phone and voicemail technology. The cell phone technology is more complex, yet today’s four year olds can effortlessly navigate through making a call, likely faster than an adult can.
 
Very little goes on in our daily lives, which is not connected somehow to technology. We use a computer for work and often for home organization and communication. We use cell phones and all their applications: electronic calendars, organizers, e-readers, e-mail, etc. Allowing your child the use of a home computer will teach him a great deal of skills he will need. He will familiarize himself with the keyboard; shortcuts and other functions; learning to type (there are also children’s games designed for that purpose); learning to search for information; and develop hand-eyecoordination. When your child is older, he will also be able to use the computer to draw and design, create stories or games, make home videos, and record his daily life (and yours!).
 
Because some of our schools are still adapting to the advances in technology, they don’t realize children now crave a different type of stimulation. They sometimes have a difficult time learning behind a desk, with less interaction and no opportunity for movement. When they get home, they often turn to videogames or computers to provide the type stimulation they need. Videogames, for instance, provide complex visual stimulation, an opportunity for body movement (which is essential for learning as it transfers data from one brain hemisphere to the other), hand-eye coordination, reasoning, creativity, and quick thinking. Thanks to the internet, technology also connects us to the entire world. 
 
Children also find ways to socialize by using technology. They can connect with their friends when there is no time for a visit, post movies they have created on YouTube, and shareanimation work, recipes, funny thoughts, or anything they want to teach others. It is their way to offer their thoughts to the world.
 
As wonderful as this sounds, technology has its risks and can expose children in undesirable ways. As a parent, here are three steps to safely becoming technology-friendly: