Resources for Parents who want to make a change in their kids lives.
Parent Solutions
ScreenStrong empowers families to prevent screen addiction and reclaim their kids from problematic screen use (social media, video games, and pornography). The solutions are not screen-free; rather they replace toxic screen use with healthy activities, life skill development, and family connections.
Designed for Middle Schoolers, this course will give your student a thorough understanding of the effects of screen time on our brains and bodies, as well as our mental health and study habits. They have organized the most requested topics that parents want their kids to understand in a way that’s fun and easy to understand.
YouTube is one of the highest visited sites by kids, especially boys. An editor at SafetyDetectives put together a recommendation on how to manage safe YouTube access for kids; however, this should never be unmonitored.
Kid-friendly Smart Phones
Sometimes kids need a phone when playing sports or other activities. Here are some options.
Personally, I recommend a “house phone” that stays in the kitchen and can be taken with them. However, everyone has access to the phone and it NEVER goes to their room.
Android-based Kid-friendly phone that allows parents to limit access, from internet access (recommended) to a host of approved apps. Parents can monitor all activity, and kids cannot delete anything from the phone.
Another Android-based phone, very similar to Bark.
Cellular-equipped watch that allows calls and texts only from approved phone numbers.
A minimal phone that only calls and texts, with a screen very similar to an Amazon Kindle. Still provides maps, podcasts, and music, but no other internet access.
Books and Articles
https://www.anxiousgeneration.com
I cannot recommend this book enough for parents, teachers, pastors, or even extended family of young kids. This book will challenge everything you know about raising kids int he modern world. Big Points:
1) No Smart Phone before High School
2) No Social Media before 16
3) Phone-Free Schools
4) More independence, free play, and responsibility in the real world.
Haidt has been publishing the research behind The Anxious Generation for a few years. After Babel has many other links and resources not included in the book.