Technology and your kids

Do you know where your kids are? Do you know who they're with? Do you know what they're doing? These questions were hard enough to answer 10 years ago but now with the age of technology thrust upon us, they are harder than ever to answer and even more complicated to ask. In this age of facebook, twitter, sexting, blogging, and online gaming, our generation of supposedly tech savy individuals is quickly becoming clueless in the wave of new technology. 

There are many sites out there to help families deal with this onslaught of technology but there is one I would like to bring to your attention today. It is called www.getgamesmart.com and it will surely be a very frequently visited site by many a clueless parent. You might think from it's title that it is just another gaming site. But this site is so much more.

It offers tools for parents to talk to their kids about these difficult issues revolving around online experiences. It offers suggestions for opening up a dialog with your kids about these difficult issues. There is even a section for kids to help give them and their families ways to talk about being kids in a digital world. Topics such as online bullying, sexting, guides to safely game online and understanding what you can do as a parent to help keep your child safely navigating online. There are even guidelines to parental control options to customize your families entertainment experience.

At any rate, it's worth visiting to take their "Do you know your gamer?" quiz and find out just how nervous you should be about your families online adventures. Hopefully we can add this site to our arsenal of tools we can draw on to help protect our families while they swim in this ocean of technology...these shark infested waters demand a higher level of vigilance and understanding.  

For more info: Seattle Xbox Examiner, Alex Bauman