The life before and after the pandemic has drastically changed people’s lives. From children to adults, everyone adapts to a new life flooding with technology use. Parents and guardians, schools, and employers are all looking for ways to monitor their respective. Parental monitoring software can help parents hack phone contacts or locate their loved ones through a GPS location tracker. It was a panic situation for many parents as daycares and schools closed immediately. Everything switched online, including entertainment and education modules.
A survey conducted in the US resulted in two-thirds of parents blaming technology for making parenting harder than it was 20 years ago. It is not wrong because children and parents rely on the internet and gadgets more than before. Since children are naïve and unaware of the potential dangers and consequences of their online actions, parents, teachers, and tech companies feel the obligation to interfere and make the Internet safe.
You may use the best parental control software and feel exhausted as parenting is a continuous uphill task. However, living in a digital era doesn’t mean that the pool only contains risks and pitfalls.
Here are the 7 tech trends to advance parenting for building the internet a safe place.
What is Parenting?
Parenting is taking care of a child’s needs, from feeding the infant to their growing chit chats and world of exploration. All basic things are nurtured by parents that turn a baby into a fully grown person. Parents may use a verified parental monitoring software to ensure their child’s safety. The parenting techniques and styles are different, and parents adopt them to raise their children.
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Authoritarian Parenting:
The name describes it well—parents with an excessive obsession with their kids’ strict rules and regulations.
2. Authoritative Parenting:
When making practicing rules, Parents keep their child’s opinion in consideration.
3. Permissive Parenting:
Permissive parents are not controlling. In many instances, kids are allowed to make their own choices.
4. Uninvolved Parenting:
They are also known as dilapidation parenting. The absence of child support characterizes such a style. Parents are not demanding, apathetic, and neglecting in the name of confidence-building.
What is Digital Parenting?
Parenting is no piece of cake. And with the widespread use of internet-enabled gadgets it is becoming more strenuous. Digital parenting includes;
- Coaching kids regarding the internet and devices.
- Educating responsibility of digital media use.
- Monitoring the online life of their kids with the help of apps.
The upbringing of children in the digital era is very stressful for parents who are not used to technology. Social media can expose our kids to cyberbullying, child grooming, violence, and scams, so parents need to become digitally aware. Parents can use the best parental control software to shield their children from menaces of online threats.
The question arises: How has technology improved parenting? Read on to know.
The Positives:
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Well of Information and Support:
The Internet is like a well of information and full of parenting forums. However, we cannot apply one parenting tip to all. Parents should use common sense before using any help.
2. Easy Activity Tracking:
Technology is connecting people in a way no one thought before. Parents can use multiple monitoring apps and use them remotely, like a GPS location tracker.
3. Easy Capturing and Sharing Memories:
In old times people would get ready and take out their cameras to capture a family portrait. Now with smartphones in every hand, parents can instantly capture a moment of 1st step or first word of a child.
How Parents are Approaching Tech Use?
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Insecure Parents:
2 in every 5 parents felt insecure about discussing issues like screen time and applications with their children.
2. Change in Screen Time:
Due to the distance learning process, 3 out of 5 parents allowed the screen times to extend for their children.
3. Remote Learning – A New Norm:
The percentage of families engaging in remote learning is 82 percent. 48 percent used laptops, 32 percent used tablets, and 20 percent used their mobiles as a tool.
4. Balance Between Quality Content and Online Time:
4 in 5 parents search for quality content online that can bring mindfulness to their children when they spend time on the internet.
5. Entertaining Activities At Home:
After the pandemic, families spent more time at home discovering their new potentials at fun activities as a unit.
6. Gadget Dependency:
It is normal to have a personal mobile for every family. Percentage of families where;
- Kids own personal tablets are 75 percent
- Kids who have personal mobiles are 70 percent.
So one can ask How Technology Gets in the Way of Parenting? The answer is given below.
The Negatives:
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The Impact Of Social Media and Safety:
Misuse of social media can lead to severe threats like bullying, low self-esteem, anxiety, sexual harassment, and abuse. Parents are no longer worried about physical harm to their child, rather a mental one.
2. Disconnect within Families:
It is reported that people who are always busy with their internet devices are more distracted by their family issues. They snap at their kids if interrupted. As a result, children may feel neglected and unimportant.
3. Outdoor Games Vs. Screen Time:
A healthy balance between the two is necessary. Quality time spent on screen can help mental development and physical activities build endurance.
4. It Becomes a Way to Escape:
Parents often feel fatigued and exhausted due to parenting, and they like to spend some “me time” on their gadgets. It may sound good, but parents should find other ways to cope with this problem as the internet requires more attention.
7 Tech Trends For Pro Parenting in 2022:
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Social Media Monitoring:
You may have heard about the death of a teen following a particular Instagram or TikTok trend, which sounds bizarre. Adolescents obsessed with social media develop psychological issues like depression and follow fad diets to achieve picture-perfect bodies. The digital world is consuming young children, and we have to monitor every step taken by our loved ones. Overview the list of famous android surveillance apps that enable you to view all social media activities of your child.
2. Track GPS Location:
Teenagers often take off with their friends without informing their parents where they are headed. But it is no longer a question for parents, as many tracking apps help parents track their children’s live location using GPS location.
3. Monitor Emails, Texts, and Multimedia:
Children may hide their emails or message conversations from their parents. There is an SMS tracker app to read your teenager’s text messages. With monitoring apps you can access the Emails, videos and pictures saved on their mobiles, sent or received by them.
4. Call Management:
Your child is receiving calls from a person who is unfamiliar to you? It is easier to hack phone contacts and get the details of the calling person. A monitoring app can record and send incoming and outgoing calls with duration, date, and time stamps.
5. Monitor Real-Time Ambiance:
Your child asked you for a sleepover at a friend’s house? Are they going there or sneaking to late-night parties? Parents are now more aware of their child’s surroundings than before. Some monitoring apps help parents listen to their children’s real-time surround sounds.
6. Supervise Online Activities:
Nowadays, parents are more actively looking into their children’s things online. The reason is their safety and wellbeing. Parents search online to make their kids use screen time more effectively. Multiple parental monitoring apps help monitor all online activities, including app usage, passwords, etc.
7. Knowing The History:
Your clever kid can use an incognito mode or clear the browsing history before you can even take a look at it. Teenage is a curious age and kids want to explore everything. But as a parent, we are obliged to guide them. Parents can view all browsing history with a single click, even if it is wiped off from their computers.
Final Words:
Parenting has evolved over decades and what sounded bizarre to our parents is a new normal for today. It is no longer a single parent’s duty to manage a kid; instead, both partners work day and night to improve their child’s upbringing. Digital parents are now sewing technology into their parenting methods.
Digital solutions like engaging kids into interactive online platforms will positively impact their social interactions. Knowing so, however, parents cannot leave kids alone with internet-enabled devices as there are some dangers also associated with it. There are monitoring apps to sort this problem.
Ingrid Maldine is a business writer, editor and management consultant with extensive experience writing and consulting for both start-ups and long established companies. She has ten years management and leadership experience gained at BSkyB in London and Viva Travel Guides in Quito, Ecuador, giving her a depth of insight into innovation in international business. With an MBA from the University of Hull and many years of experience running her own business consultancy, Ingrid’s background allows her to connect with a diverse range of clients, including cutting edge technology and web-based start-ups but also multinationals in need of assistance. Ingrid has played a defining role in shaping organizational strategy for a wide range of different organizations, including for-profit, NGOs and charities. Ingrid has also served on the Board of Directors for the South American Explorers Club in Quito, Ecuador.
