OMG - My Digital Coach is a 10-year old!

Whenever I used to make a digital gaffe at work, I would joke - “Well, that’s what happens when your digital coach is a 10-year old!” Little did my colleagues know the truth behind my bravado. And little did I realize just how much my digital habits had been formed and informed by the tech-savvy 10-year old who shared my computer. Social networking? I learned the ropes on Club Penguin way before I had my own Facebook account. Shortcuts on my Mac? My digital coach taught me more in one tutorial than I had picked up in a lifetime. How to IM on Skype? Once again, geek-kid came to the rescue including a lesson on how to “moon’ someone with an emoticon, a skill I treasure to this day.



Then I had a wake-up call: One day, I caught my daughter sending the following message to a fellow “penguin” on Club Penguin: “Will you kiss me?” Whoa! I thought. Totally inappropriate! But how to deal with it? I said, “Honey, would you say that to a kid in your class?” “Of course not,” she mumbled. “Well,” I said, “if you wouldn’t do it in the real world, you can’t do it in the online world.” Thus we launched into our first real conversation about the appropriate way to behave online.

Luckily I had learned some key lessons when I helped develop an advertising campaign for The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Our goal was to raise awareness among parents about the sexual solicitation of kids online. I was shocked by what I learned, not just about the prevalence and effectiveness of sexual solicitors online but, more frightening, about how ill-equipped parents were to deal with these issues. As soon as their children’s lives were involved with anything online, parents threw their hands up in the air and their parenting skills out the window.

The lessons I learned from NCMEC stayed with me as my own daughter grew up and became a self-proclaimed “computer geek,” more comfortable texting than talking; skyping than calling. Now that she’s “digitally active” I realize how difficult it is to raise a smart, savvy and safe kid in cyberspace; how few experts there are; and how difficult it is to find a helpful resource.

So, I’ve made it my mission to be that resource and answer parents’ questions on everything to do with tech and tweens. I will seek out the experts who can help define the parameters for the digital world of teens.

If we can help our kids navigate these new frontiers while they are still young enough to rely on us and welcome our involvement, we'll have a better chance of raising good digital citizens with the skills and values they need to responsibly explore cyberspace on their own.