If your kids are going to be left alone over the break with their smartphones, tablets, computers, or gaming consoles, there’s one vital conversation that needs to happen… NOW!

Christmas break is almost here and you know what that means.

Whether you’re a teacher or principal a superintendent or a parent what’s about to happen is kids are going to be, by and large, left alone for a little while. You know, this is just like summer break, just like spring break, it’s a time when a lot of parents are working and their kids are together at home alone. They’re with a babysitter. They’re with a grandparent. They’re doing some activity. But for a lot of kids, they’re not gonna’ be with their parents because during the day while mom and dad are at work.

It’s the latchkey kid thing a little bit coming back but in the new technological era that we’re in. It means our sons and daughters are gonna’ have unfettered and unsupervised access to their smartphones, to their tablets to their gaming consoles, to their computers. They’ll be playing a lot of Fortnight. They’ll be texting their friends. They’ll be browsing the internet. And this is the time that we need to be proactive and talking with our kids about what they’re doing online.

You know, we’re handing them the keys to the car but we’re not teaching them how to drive.

That’s where we come in as parents, as educators, to make this a topic of conversation. Making an Internet safety a topic of conversation, the uncomfortable topics that we don’t want to talk about but we have to.

I was having lunch with a friend the other day and she’s in this space of keeping kids safe online and she was telling me about one of the struggles that her company is having right now is – apathy – parental apathy, by and large.

It’s unfortunate that we’re in this place where there’s so much going on in our lives. There’s so much to talk to our kids about. There’s so much happening in the world. Carving out time for one more thing is tough.

I understand that, but this is vital. This is something that we desperately need to be taking seriously and not waiting until something bad happens to talk to our kids.

It’s more important than ever that we talk to our children about their digital lives and the impact that they can have now, and the actions that can impact them for the rest of their lives.

This is serious stuff. It’s not just a lot of slap on the wrist and you know don’t do that. There are kids out there who are who are altering the course of the rest of their lives because of their online activities. So, if you’re going to be in that situation -even if you’re not for this Christmas break – you know just the whole ask of Above The Fray is to talk to your children about their digital lives on an ongoing basis. Parenting online, just like we do offline.

If you need any resources, if you want to have any conversations about that, feel free to reach out to me. Our Above The Fray Presentation is available virtually, so we can stream right into your classroom, into your cafeteria, into your library. For kids, for parents, let’s get this conversation started about how we’re gonna’ parent our kids online and keep them safe online during this holiday break.

Thomas Dodson

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