Technically Trying

 Once your child has a device with access to the internet you need to make sure you're covering the safety rules of what cannot or should not be shared online. When your kids are little, you talk to them about safety in the world: stay close to your parents in the store, don't go around the corner where I can't see you, talk to a trusted adult if you get lost, etc etc. But their world is changing so rapidly and become so digital that these safe rules need to be adapted for online content. So what should you discuss with your child before they get their first device? * Never share your full name, address, school name, or current location     It doesn't matter that you think John is Johnny from down the street and he "totally knows me". Don't do it. Don't talk about favorite locations and activities you have going on during the week or when you'll be at the mall without your parents. Just don't. They will use that information to meet you in perso...

 How many times have you heard that phrase? "But so-and-so has it? But her parents gave her one! But its the only way my friends talk! How come I can't be included?" What they're really saying is "You're leaving me behind while all my friends bond and do this super cool thing and I feel like a left-out loser and its all your fault!" Which to a child/teen, this is their entire world. And as a mom, I get that. Our kids want to feel included. They want to feel part of the group, on the inside, and remembered for something great. Thats a natural human feeling and we can absolutely support that in a way thats healthy and safe for our kids. Fortunately, times are changing so fast that parents have lots of options when it comes to a child's first device and are able to find plans that match their level of comfort. Because remember: When you hand your child an internet capable device, you are handing them a means to contact anyone, anywhere, any time. And th...

 The next post in this series about tech safe homes surrounds the use of parental controls on devices and home networks.  Parental controls are exactly what they sound like. The parents (or guardians) of the child monitor, secure, and filter the device their child is using. This includes time limits, app limits, blocking certain websites or a category of websites, routines where the device will lock, and many other things to help the child stay safe when interacting with the device. When using parental controls, your best defense is a good offense! The first and most important safety rule is talking with your child  and having open and honest discussions about their safety online, how to handle navigating the internet and what to do if something happens. No filter or policy is ever going to replace a good relationship with your child. But lets say you already have that amazing relationship with your child, what now? * Use device level parental controls     This ...

 The first blog post of this month's series about Building a Tech-Safe home begins with family conversations and rules around technology and personal devices.  Many families have multiple devices: iPads, cell phones, laptops, smart tv, and smart watches. Throw in a few school devices and a cool new birthday gift of an Alexa or Google Home and you're suddenly surrounded with things that think faster than you, respond better than you, and track more than you ever could.  To help this overwhelming feeling of "Well, its too late, we have too many things to keep track of!" Start simple: Start with Family Rules Rules should include: * Decide where devices can be used Where are areas of your home where using a device might cause a problem? The three B's! - Bedrooms, Bathrooms and before Bedtime! While the last one isn't really an area of your home, it does help your child's mind wind down before they go to sleep for the night. Turn off devices, settle down as a f...

 This year I will be going through a few mini-series posts about tech safety and how you can help your kids to grow up to be safe tech savvy adults. Sometimes I post tips, conversation starters, things I've discovered that are issues in the tech world, or talk about articles in the tech world that strike me as interesting. I'll be focusing on themed months where I will (hopefully) have at least three posts under the following umbrella topics: Building a Tech-Safe Home Protecting Your Kids (Family) Online Social Media Readiness Online Games (And How to Handle the People In Them) What to do when..... My goal is to help you become one of the leaders of safety in your home and give you and your family the tools you need to be safe when navigating the online world. I try to bring awareness out to the fore-front of issues our kids are facing online and those parenting questions you might have both here and on my parent website. Also keep an eye out for my Tiny Tech Tips in the school...

 Summer is coming quick and with it comes freedom, less schedules, more sunshine, and growing so quickly its hard to keep up! Your family is going to be busy, spending more time together, and hopefully enjoying the next few weeks of sunshine and fun. But when you're relaxing, you might resort to using your devices to pass the time. Remember some of the safe guards you put in place to keep your family protected online. Have those open discussions this summer about being a good person both on and offline. Remind your family that online discussions are out there forever! Some easy rules to follow when navigating the online world: 1) Everything you say, do, or post is out there forever. You cannot delete it or take it back. Once it leaves your hands, its out there permanently. You can delete it from your view, but its still stored out there in the internet universe.  2) If you don't want to see it on the front page of MSN.com for all the world to read, don't do it. 3) If you wo...

 A few months ago I was watching an episode of the Shawn Ryan Show with my husband and we watched the episode #284. In this episode, Shawn hosts a young man known as Schlep in the online youtube and gaming community. Schlep talks about his experience with Roblox and the massive battle he is fighting to remove predators from the online community of Roblox and how he is navigating that very dangerous legal battle. Shawn, as can be expected, was nearly horrified at the material Schlep was telling him was available on Roblox and why it is so important to do the work he is doing and how to protect kids online. If you've known me for any length of time, or read any of my blogs or parent website posts, you know this is an extremely important matter to me and my family. So I did some more reading. And parents, you need to know Schlep too. Especially going into the summer seasons. First, your homework assignment is to watch the Shawn Ryan Show, episode #284. Please watch it in its entirety....

 A lot of families are excited this time of year because the warm weather usually means its Spring Break season! Family trips, being outside, and getting a small taste of summer is a great time to refresh, unwind, and renew your energy for the end of the school year (for most families) or maybe its a reset button for your year round 9-5. Either way, this time of year is a great time to remind ourselves of social network and traveling safety. Imagine this, you're in a great little spot near the edge of the water. The warm sun, the kids are happy and not arguing for the first time all morning, and you're taking pictures in between books you brought and a fun little drink. You want to share this moment with your friends so you open up Instagram, post your photo with a cute little tag #momlife or #beachday or #springbreak. And you go back to relaxing... That photo is then put on your friend's algorithms to pop up, and they like it as they scroll. Then friends of theirs see they...

 When you sign up for a new program, software, website, you always enter your email. New bank account? Email address. Fun new app? Email address. Kid signing up for sports programs? Email address. If someone were to get into your email, they would have everything they needed right at your fingertips. Lets secure your email first .  Using the tips I've given you over this four part series, you should already understand how to upgrade your password and implement MFA to secure your email inbox from hackers and dark web users. But there are other ways they can try to import themselves into your every day inbox. Phishing. If you've ever received an email telling you all about a brand new phone that costs nothing to get and you'll get a credit on your account if you switch, you probably knew that it was some type of spam or junk mail. But phishing is different. Phishing is where the sender tries to incorporate some type of fear, stress, or deadline to make you interact with the e...

 In this third installment of password security posts, I'll be talking about using MFA, why you need to become familiar with it and how it will secure your most important personal information. MFA stands for Multi-factor authentication. This means there is more than one way to authorize that the person getting into the account is in fact the person who needs to have access. This relies on three specific things: Image from harvard.edu cybersecurity website * Something you know * Something you have * Something you are Something you know - This is the knowledge you have of your password. This can also be answers to those security questions asking about the town you were born in or your favorite pet's name from childhood. Something you have - This is a device or a token/fob that you carry with you. It could be a personal device, a work device, or a keychain/card that you pull out of your wallet or pocket. Some high security places require a token that shows a six digit number every...

 In my previous post   I talked about how to create strong passwords so you don't need to worry about losing personal information to someone you don't know. I also referenced using a password manager and tagged an old post I had written last school year. In this post, I'll be talking again about password managers, what they are, and how they will help you have less stress when trying to coordinate all of your current files and accounts. Once you've created those long strong passwords, you need to keep them in a place that is secure. Back in the day, it used to be a notebook, maybe you were lucky enough to find an old school journal with a lock and heart-shaped key and you would keep your passwords in there. But I hate to tell you, thats just not secure enough. So take the key off your necklace and lets transfer those passwords to a more secure, and encrypted, password manager on your personal device. A password manager is simply an app that uses one single password to a...

 I get it. Remembering a ton of passwords for all the required online programs and digital devices is overwhelming. You enter a password to get into your phone, you enter a password to get into your email, you enter a password to turn on your computer, you enter a password to sit down and watch netflix, you enter a password to check your bank account, and on and on and on. Passwords are not going away any time soon. So you will have to live with them and learn to use them in a safe and secure way in order to keep your personal information safe. Back in the day, it used to be so easy to use a single word as a password since there weren't any rules regarding length or using numbers or symbols. All you needed was a word you could remember like "toaster" or "yellow". Now, when you enter that password, the program tells you its weak and requires you to add a number, a symbol, a capital letter, and possibly the footprint of your first born. I'm joking! Kind of. Us...

 Last year I wrote this post about holiday shopping and I feel it still stands the test of time today! Be safe this holiday shopping season! Holiday Shopping and New Gadget Safety Keep safe and don't stress!

 Sometimes teachers like to do what is called a "bell ringer" or "seat work" when they begin the class. Sometimes its the "warmup" activity of the day. (or the hour) They come up with different things to show their kids a fun fact, make them answer a question, have a thought provoking conversation, or finish a quick game or activity. This helps them start the class on the right foot. Well I found a really cool activity for teachers to use that takes a lot of the guess work and thought out of creating those first things every day! EdTomorrow First Five! https://www.edtomorrow.com/today/ This website has grade level appropriate games, memes, thoughtful writing prompts or questions that can help get their minds focused, relaxed, and ready to learn. Today is Halloween, so they had a themed post for the day: Those are just for the "secondary" level. They have two other grade levels: The teacher can pick which one fits their students best and then pick...

 I've talked about AI before and its been something that I feel, as a parent, needs to be discussed openly almost as much as pornography if you are going to protect your kids from harm. ( PYE's Ten before Ten ) I truly believe that AI has a lot of good and help in the world. But I also know that, as we have seen in news articles, AI can hurt.  I use AI a lot in my job: research, problem solving, and creating emails when I just don't have the right words to explain my point of view. But with the ever growing "AI as a therapist/friend/confidant" generation of development, its becoming more and more dangerous to use AI when you are not fully aware that this is not a human . I'm speaking mostly about our children and their interactions with AI. Children don't need to be using AI. Especially unsupervised. They do not need an AI companion, they do not need to have a therapy session with ChatGPT, they need to learn to talk with humans, interact face to face, and ...

 As technology grows in our world and we become more immersed in the every day tasks that require said technology, we are faced with a dilemma right down to the very core of our human nature: Is this natural? Is this human? Is this right? I was recently made aware of an issue where robots are being created to birth children. Human children. These robots are being designed to actually carry the fertilized egg the full ten months of gestation and have a fully formed human to be given to new parents.  This brings up a new question that is directly related to our deeply rooted faith: Is this God at work? And I think the answer here is "no".  Technology can be a lot of things! Technology helped us create better paper for stories to be written on, better vehicles for safety, better medicines for healing, better entertainment for fireworks, and better convenience for every day life. But at what point do we stop and say "no thats too far"? At what point do we, as the human ...

 Google recently released access to their AI tools for all ages and its as if none of them have kids of their own! Releasing a powerful tool like that for all age users inside an educational setting is another way for students to find content they don't need to see or learn behaviors they don't need to learn. I'm not against AI. I use it constantly. I am always looking up things that I don't quite know, or using the conversational style researching to figure out problems I am working through with my job. Sometimes its nice to type in a query that is going through my head in one fashion and asking it to word it more clearly for another search I need to make. AI is a great tool in my toolbelt and I can see how it becomes an every day habit. However, our kids brains aren't developed! Their pre-frontal cortex hasn't finished growing and introducing them to a tool as powerful as AI that can speak back to you in a conversational manner can cause some serious problems!...

 Welcome back to another school year! A new school year brings a lot of new plans, new ideas, new habits, and new rituals. Make sure to include safe technology use with those new habits by creating a family friendly technology schedule or set of habits that everyone can follow. Ease into the Day * Don't allow television, ipads, kindles, or cell phones before you leave for school. Instead, allow your child to eat breakfast, get dressed, and have a small amount of quiet play time or reading time to ease into the day. This helps regulate their system to keep them calm and prepare their mind for the work ahead. Mimic the behavior you want to see * If you require no tech for your child, try to do the same for yourself. Yes we all have emails that need to be answered, texts that come through for last minute spirit days, or the random phone call before 7am asking for a ride. But be open about your use "I'm sorry, I just got a text and I need to make sure its not from school, hold...

 Going into the summer months can be daunting when you're a working parent with kids at home. You might feel concerned about their screen time and the various un-monitored hours they could spend on their devices. Now is the best time to talk with your child about their device use and making sure that they understand you are their safe place! Use this time to confirm with your child that they can talk to you about anything . You are there to keep them safe! Remind them that you can look at their device at any time and if you are curious about something, that they will have a conversation with you and together you can work through the issue. Give them the opportunity to be outside and spend time with friends without  a device. There are lots of summer camps and fun activities this summer! Get your child out there!  I recommend creating a tech friendly summer plan to help your child feel like they're getting what they want while also getting what you feel is right for your f...

In today's digital world, kids are often more tech-savvy than we realize. One tool they might use is a VPN, or Virtual Private Network. While VPNs are commonly used for privacy and security, some children may also use them to bypass parental controls. This guide will help parents understand VPNs, recognize signs of misuse, and maintain open communication with their kids about responsible technology use. Remember, your child is really smart! Communicate your concerns with them at every turn when it comes to digital safety. You're helping them grow and become healthy tech savvy adults! What is a VPN? A VPN encrypts internet traffic and masks a user's location by routing their connection through a secure server. While this can protect privacy and secure sensitive data on public Wi-Fi networks, it also allows users to hide their online activity, which may be concerning for parents. How Kids Might Use VPNs to Bypass Parental Controls Children might use VPNs to: Access res...