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Parents struggle when kids’ digital interactions turn negative

Bully Free Zonephoto © 2008 Eddie~S | more info (via: Wylio)


This morning the New York Times published a phenomenal article on the struggles of parents to

  1. keep up with their kids’ digital lives, and
  2. respond when children’s digital interactions turn negative.
  3. There are no easy answers here, but the solution is not for us or our children to withdraw. Withdrawing doesn’t change the behavior; it just removes our ability to know about it. Instead, we must engage with our children and be actively involved in these interactions – not in a behind-their-back monitoring sense but in a caring, responsible adult sense – so that we can help them navigate these new interaction spaces in which we all now live.

    I’m going to recommend this article to every parent I know (yes, it’s that good), and I suggest you do the same. I’m also going to have my 12-year-old daughter read it and then we’re going to talk about it. Check it out. This is important stuff.


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