Equipping Ourselves as Tech-Aware Adults
Technology is advancing at hyper speed, and it can feel overwhelming to understand what and how to monitor it effectively for the children in our care. “Managing my kids’ screen time sometimes feels like a full-time job,” remarked SCC Executive Director, Christe LePeau. To help us with this Herculean task we invited Tucson nonprofit LPKNC to facilitate a special training for our caregivers, “Social Media and Cyberbullying: How to Protect Your Household.”
Samantha Valdez, Program Facilitator at LPKNC, led this training and began by sharing how many young people today find great importance in their online lives and online experience. Many youth identify technology as an integral part of staying connected with friends and family, accessing information, and developing a sense of independence (Sage & Jackson, 2022). She provided the caveat, however, that as caregivers, we must be aware of the potential safety risks that come with internet use.
During this training, caregivers learned about:
What social media is and how youth use it
Online predators and common methods used to build trust with youth
Educating children about online safety
Warning signs of grooming and cyberbullying
Online gaming and the communication features caregivers should be aware of
Ways youth can hide pictures, videos, or online activity
How caregivers can help protect children online
Protecting a child's privacy online
AI and how photos can be altered or used
Life360 and location sharing
Why this is especially important for kinship youth
Life360 app provides location sharing features.
Children in foster and kinship care are at a higher risk of exploitation and a higher risk of identity theft. They may make attempts to connect with biological parents or find information about relatives, which could end up being harmful to them. It is even more crucial that caregivers have conversations with their children about how to stay safe online, encouraging them to be open and honest with us about what happens online- whether good or bad.
Valdez provided some excellent take-home resources for families to utilize to begin (or continue) having these important talks with the kids in their care. She encouraged caregivers that even though they may not have grown up with these technologies, there are many free, publicly available resources to help them protect their children.
If you are looking for a guide to activating parental controls on a particular device, here is an excellent website with step-by-step instructions (22 devices are included as of this writing!).
If you are looking for some recommendations for kid-safe(r) phones, this is a great compilation (click on the “safe tech” tab).
If you’re dealing with a tricky technology-related situation with your child, here are a bunch of step-by-step guides to working through common problems.
If you’re looking for a sample phone contract or a phones, internet, and social media quick guide created by our Kinship Family Coordinator, Kelly Hubbard, we’ve got you covered.
If you missed our September training but would like this information, please reach out to us. LPKNC has told us that they’d be happy to facilitate future trainings for our kinship families. We are so grateful for their partnership and dedication to our families.
Sage, M., Jackson, S. A Systematic Review of Internet Communication Technology Use by Youth in Foster Care. Child Adolesc Soc Work J 39, 375–390 (2022).
