When I talk to my friend, the mother of an eight-year-old, she usually has one comment: "My child spends too much time on the Internet, and that's not healthy!". Then I remember her from a few years ago, when the child still didn't have his mobile phone, when his main toys were a tablet and her phone.
Without wanting to judge her, for the same reason I ask her not to judge her child, because children rarely do something that we haven't shown them or seen from us.
If you are one of those people, who are like my friend, and you look at your child's mobile phone as a small enemy, and not even sentences like: "During that period, I was in the yard all day, and he was only on the phone" you are not foreign, please consider that our children and we are not the same generation.
New technologies have the effect that the differences that exist between generations are only getting bigger.
I belong to that famous category of millennials who have an app for every little thing. Although it could be said that I am crazy about new technologies and all social networks, often when primary school students, my friend's son and his friends, ask me about some new effect on Tik-Tok, I have no idea.
In half an hour they already learned how to make it and show it to me.
We are all born with some technology, from the first radio to Tik-Tok, and we all learn how to use new technologies.
It's the same with our children - they are born with technology, but technology is developing much faster today than before.
That's why their focus on technology is greater than ours, and that's a big difference: they are tied to technology like you used to be to Commodore 64, but the number of technological solutions available to them is greater than to us.
Digital skills - the key to success in the future
Now let's go to the other extreme: imagine completely banning your child's access to the computer, mobile phone and internet.
How will they communicate with their peers? The age of landlines is long behind us.
How will he acquire the basic skills that his peers already have?
You may be wondering what kind of skills I'm talking about, but try learning practical IT things with your primary school students: turning on the computer, opening a folder, starting Word or Excel...
They will smile sweetly at you and continue their "work", because they already know everything you once had to learn, and they didn't have a special teacher or book.
Not to mention that basic digital skills are the key to success and that you can't do even the simplest work without a computer.
In addition, an important benefit that our elementary students have from using the Internet is access to numerous resources and information, with which they not only spread their mandatory school literature, but also learn new things and gain general knowledge in various fields. They can find almost everything they are interested in online: from training, to courses in design or photo processing, to their favorite video games.
And yes, I mentioned another concern of parents - video games that hypnotize their children.
I know it can be frustrating when you call a child several times and then notice that he is playing a video game and is in a completely different world, but think about the fact that with video games he also learns to orient himself well in space, he reacts quickly as soon as he sees a virtual one. enemies", and the moments when he follows several of them at the same time are his favorite.
These are all important cognitive functions that your child develops by playing video games, so there is really very little reason to stop them from doing so.
Here you can read about the other benefits that children get from playing the most popular games, but what you still have to take into account. One of the things you must regulate is how much time your child spends playing video games.
Should boundaries be set?
Of course, as with everything, there must be limits. In the use of the Internet and smart devices, it must be in relation to the time, but also the content that the child consumes.
By setting limits, parents often risk becoming enemies in the eyes of the child, and making what they defend even sweeter, because it is now forbidden. Besides strict limits will cause arguments and dissatisfaction, your child will not understand what effect you want to achieve, so you have to be careful.
Although children generally don't realize it, the main concern of parents is their physical activity, which, next to social networks and games, falls into the background.
If you, like the majority, are worried about this, try not to criticize your child, but instead, whenever you have free time, suggest a joint walk or training at home.
Children look forward to joint activities and there is an opportunity for the child to be active or in nature for several hours.
By repeating these types of activities, the child will only get into the habit of needing a stay in nature or a mini-training session.
Of course, I don't promise you that it will become their daily routine, but by showing them through your own example and without criticism, the child's habits will change.
What worries my friend from the beginning of the story is what kind of content her child consumes.
Famous YouTubers, content that has aggressive scenes or social networks where children meet other users they don't know, are the worries of today's parents.
However, all this did not come with the advent of the Internet.
Remember that before going out to the park, our parents also told us not to talk to strangers, they were worried about who we were hanging out with and playing with, and there were no shortage of punishments when they found out about some mischief of the group from the park.
All this today is just copied to the online world and, the fact is, it has become more dangerous than it was then.
However, the recipe for a solution is still the same: as our parents have always told us, repeat to your child how dangerous it can be to talk to a stranger on the Internet, and show him through your own example how to behave online.
No leaving personal information, online discussions or posting and sending inappropriate photos.
Set up a value system just like you do for all other things, talk about them and the child will eventually understand what is good behavior online and what is not.
It will also bypass content that it deems to be bad. If he even looks at it, because sometimes we look at something out of curiosity, he will clearly distinguish that he should not behave like that.
If the child still does not go to school, you should not be fooled that it is too early for such conversations.
This is exactly the right time for the child to start building his digital intelligence, and for the sake of precaution and your complete carelessness, in to this text learn how to make your child watch only content intended for children with the help of the YouTube Kids service.
I believe that all your worries have not disappeared after reading this text, but I hope that today you will try to think a little differently and that you will accept the change that with new generations and the development of technologies, we also get new habits that we cannot influence.
Try not to limit what your child is interested in, because there is no bigger mistake than denying a child's curiosity.
Present him with opportunities and possibilities so that his interest can be focused on benefits and maybe one day your child will start programming, creating video games or creating new technologies.
This article is part of the company's corporate social responsibility domain which for years has been making efforts to bring the Internet and new technologies closer to the Montenegrin society, especially to young people.
Last year, the company also launched a portal www.stemedukacija.me, which your child can use as a resource for these and similar topics.
