With our children becoming increasingly interested with what’s on our iPhones, iPads and laptops, my husband and I have started to think about helping our kids make the most of technology and the best ways to keep them safe online. I know they’re still really young (only 3 and 5) but we want to instil good habits from the start.
I’ve recently been introduced to internet matters, a charity whose purpose it to help parents help kids make the most of the Internet. They have worked with Pocket-lint to create a series of guides for parents, these cover mobile phones, smart tvs, gaming consoles, laptops and tablets and gadgets.
I think the guides are really useful. The mobile phone guide, for example, covers 5 things you should consider when buying a device (including PAYG or contract, choosing a network and Android or Apple?); Smartphones and social media and 6 Phones to consider for your child.
The Nokia100 is recommended for younger children as it is a really basic phone for calls and texts. I also discovered the Kurio Phone which has been specifically designed for children in-built parental controls.
My husband used to a be a bit of a gamer so we also found the gaming consoles guide very interesting. It is too tempting to introduce our 5 year old to the consoles we already have set up at home but I had never considered how to find out if a game was appropriate for my child or heard of the “PEGI” rating.
We have lots of the consoles mentioned in the guide and most of them seem to include parental controls. You don’t even need to look up the manuals as the guide provides further information and a visual guide to setting these up.
Although I’m not in a hurry for my children to grow up I think technology plays a much bigger part in their childhood than it ever did in mine. Reading the gadget guide made me think about the smart toys they have and how they’re surrounded by the ‘Internet of Things’; this is the generic name for all appliances and devices that you connect to your home network and something which my husband has been busy working on at home.
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Both my husband and I read the guides and thought they were well written and thorough. He’s worked in IT for nearly 20 years so didn’t discover anything new but they provided a great talking point and we’re definitely be bearing some things in mind around age appropriate devices and parental control.
If you’d like to find out more about internet matters and their new range of tech guides for parents make sure to join in the conversation tomorrow as there will be a #KidsandTech Twitter party (Tuesday 28th April). It will take place between 1-2pm with Carolyn Bunting from internetmatters.org and technology expert Stuart Miles, founder of the Pocket-lint website.
These sound like really helpful guides, thanks for sharing.