Disclosure: Thank you LifeLock for sponsoring this post. Please visit The Smart Talk for more tips on how to prepare your kids to develop healthy online habits.
It seems like kids are born knowing how to use technology. As soon as we hand them our cell phone they think it’s the coolest device ever but little do they know the parents are concerned with online safety and protecting our kids from what’s going on in cyber world. With the holidays coming, you might be considering the gift of technology for your child. Even if a tech device isn’t topping your kid’s holiday wish list, you might be upgrading your own device, making it the perfect time to give your child your old smartphone or tablet without the extra cost. To help parents better manage kids and technology devices and usage, LifeLock and the National PTA recently teamed up to create The Smart Talk – a free, digital toolkit that gives families a roadmap to set collaborative ground rules that help strike a healthier relationship with technology.
When I met the Smart Tak reps at a recent Kidz Vuz event I wanted to know more about setting ground rules and signing the Smart Talk Family Agreement with my son (T.J.) when I give him his first cell phone. My son and I sat down together and agreed on healthy digital habits on his phone and signed the family contract. We had a great time. It is very easy to do. Head to http://www.thesmarttalk.org and take a look. Included in the contract are the Safety & Privacy, Screen Time, Apps & Download for you both to discuss, also parental controls and passcodes, how many hours of screen time is allowed for your child, how much money can be spent on apps and what ratings of movies can be viewed.
T.J. will be a teenager next year so some of the rules will diminish as he shows more responsibility. He’s been asking for a cell phone for a while and I wanted to make sure he was absolutely ready to own one. After agreeing on healthy limits together, a personalized, official family agreement can be stored on the computer or printed and posted at home. We printed ours out and will hang it on the refrigerator.
Visit The Smart Talk site to check out this free resource for parents and create your own personalized family contract to encourage healthy digital habits.
To help you get the technology conversation started with your family, use these The Smart Talk created technology gift tags to remind your family to talk about technology together before the fun and games begin.
Here is the downloadable and printable one sheet of gift tags: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxsi9BsVTS8GQjZoN3FzTWRHYUk/view?pli=1
Disclosure: I was selected for this opportunity as a member of KidzVuz blogger network and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
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