summer2010

=10 Summer Screen Time Tips for Parents=

Summer break is almost here and I'm looking forward to some lazy summer days by the pool, reading a good book. But I know all our days won't be like that and sometimes boredom will creep in. When it does, somehow the requests for more screen time increases exponentially. Our family does set a higher screen time limit during the summer, but it never seems to be quite enough. What is a parent to do?
 * 1) Review your family's Media Agreement (or create one if you don't have one). Make sure that it includes a daily screen time limit, so everybody is on board with these limits from the start of summer vacation. You can find a good example @ SafeKids.com.
 * 2) Make sure that the screen time your child is engaged in is age appropriate. Find reviews of games, movies, websites and more @ www.commonsensemedia.org.
 * 3) Make sure that all online activities take place in a public space in the house. Wireless internet access is available not only through laptops, but also many gaming platforms such as Wii, X-Box360, DS and smart phones such as the iPhone.
 * 4) Consider using a filter with some sort of parental control, but do not consider filtering software a replacement for your hands-on monitoring. At the very least, ensure that Google's SafeSearch is set to "Use strict filtering". To set this, select Preference from the Google home page.
 * 5) Check out the web browser history on the computers used by your child. See if there are any patterns or websites that are new that are being visited a lot.
 * 6) Are your kids using a social networking site, like Facebook? Are they playing a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), like Runescape or World of Warcraft? Are they posting videos on YouTube? Did you know that all these sites have an under 13 years old age restriction? Here is the Facebook policy in a nutshell: //"If you are under age 13, please do not attempt to register for Facebook or provide any personal information about yourself to us. We strongly recommend that minors 13 years of age or older ask their parents for permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet and we encourage parents to teach their children about safe internet use practices."// If your child wants access to this kind of site, first take the time to thoroughly review the site yourself. If you approve, then you should consider having full access to their accounts. This is not an invasion of privacy issue, this is a safety issue.
 * 7) If your child sets up a web page or blog online, subscribe to the page over RSS or bookmark it and visit it daily.
 * 8) Carefully consider the ramifications of allowing your child to have an e-mail account. There is no good way to avoid all the inappropriate spam that's bound to come in. There is a way with a gmail account to use the plus-addressing feature to create filtered inboxes. If you approve of your child having an e-mail account, then you should set up the account together and let your child know that you will occasionally be monitoring their e-mail activity. This is really no different than an administrator at a company or school having access to e-mail account info of their employees for security purposes.
 * 9) Google your child. Probably nothing will turn up, but you never know. Just in case, every once in a while, you should Google your child's name, nickname, city (put your child's name in quotations and then type + the town, eg. "John Doe" +Anytown).
 * 10) Spending time together this summer may mean occasionally doing some screen time together. Find a game to play or project to work on that you can do together:
 * Create a game in Scratch.
 * Tell a story with a VoiceThread.
 * Be film critics and submit your review to www.commonsensemedia.org.
 * Produce your own summer blockbuster.
 * More digital ideas for summer.

Contact Kim Wilkens (kwilkens@montessoripantops.org) with your comments and questions.