Proper Parenting In The Digital Era

 

Proper parenting in the digital era succinctly refers to the intentional and informed guidance of children in their use of digital technologies, ensuring the children's emotional, physical, and psychological developments. Thorough parenting has not been an easy task right from the cradle of the ages. It is extremely tasking. It presents both benefits and challenges as well. The following are the benefits of digital technologies:

1. Access to information: 

In this age of technology, the internet has provided enough information on parenting, child development tips, and inclusive education. 

2. Connectivity: 

All digital facilities are available to help parents and caregivers stay connected with their children, even when they are thousands of kilometres separated physically from one another.

3. Availability of learning resources: 

Digital platforms have made available enough educational resources, including online courses, educational apps, and virtual field trips.

4. Community building:

Social media and online forums provide opportunities for parents to connect with others, share experiences, and receive support, where necessary. 

The challenges of digital technologies are as follows:

1. Excess screen time: 

It is on record that parents and caregivers have failed woefully to limiting the time spent by children watching the televisions and pressing their smart phones, including other cordless devices. The time that children should have used for their academic studies is now spent watching the screens. As a result of this loose conducts, regular sleep patterns have been disrupted. The children are now sleeping more in their classrooms during lessons than at homes. The children sleep randomly at schools during lessons because they did not sleep last night. This sleep deficit causes poor cognitive development, physical weaknesses, retarded growth, and mental issues to the children's overall welfare. To correct excessive screen time, parents must balance the benefits of digital technologies with the need to limit screen time and promote physical activities.

2. Cyber bullying and online safety: 

It is the duty of parents to educate their children about online safety, cyber bullying, and digital citizenship. What is digital citizenship? It means the responsibility and ethical use of technology, particularly in online environment. It involves understanding one's right and responsibilities as a digital citizen, and using technology with respect, and having the rights and dignity of others in mind. 

3. Digital addiction: 

It has become a viral plague infecting the world. Children, teenagers, adolescents, and adults are helplessly addicted to watching televisions and pressing their smart phones for endless hours daily. Every morning, afternoon, and night, the smart phones in particular, are in their hands. They navigate from one app to the other. Every form of addiction has its own peculiar way of robbing the affected person. It robs the victim of time, focus, resourcefulness, and success. There is no single form of addiction that does not cause either poverty, health risk potential, or loss of self-esteem and dignity. Some mobile phone users cannot keep it down for just 5 minutes without knowing what to do with it. Children, teenager, and adolescents in particular, are the most hit by this mobile phone addiction. They find it extremely difficult to study because mobile phone is wedded to them. They are inseparable. Academic performance in primary schools, secondary schools or colleges, universities, and other testiary institutions has dropped dramatically to the lowest ebb across the world! The standard of education is also falling daily all over the world due to the proliferation of digital technologies. Karl Marx said that the beautiful products invented and used by man has made man useless! Is this statement subject to argument? No! The excessive screen time alone does not allow mankind to study, research, explore, invent, and discover other better technologies. The televisions, internet, and the smart phones in particular, are drawing the world backwards, not because they are not useful, but because they do not allow mankind to do more exploits! So many smart phone users have become slaves to phones. There is no more time for any other thing. The standard of education is falling daily because the pupils and students everywhere are glued to the mobile phones than books. I was discussing with one popular and highly respected medical doctor in Lagos last year. He worked in the general hospitals for 49 years before retirement. He is in his mid 80s. I told him that education, including his own medical field, has fallen dramatically. He asked me why I felt that the medical field has fallen like others too. I gave him instances of the wrong prescriptions the newly graduated medical doctors are giving to patients. I also told him of three cases which I know where doctors forgot napkins, razors, and other surgical items in the stomachs after successful surgeries. He looked at me for some minutes and drew closer to me and told me one story. This is the story which the old doctor told me. He said that after his retirement, he had his own hospital for many years. One patient, a woman, came to him and complained of an excruciating pains in her stomach. After a thorough examination, he discovered that the woman had a six (6) inches scissors in her stomach. As a well-trained medical personnel, he did not shout and fidget. But, he said that he was exceedingly surprised and sorry for the woman. The scissors had been there for four years and three months. The woman was going up and down, from hospital to hospital, wasting her hard earned resources for treatment. There was no solution in sight. Nobody saw the scissors! He said that he asked her where she did the surgery. The patient told him. He wrote a strong-worded letter to the medical director of the hospital which operated on her. He told the doctor who did the surgery to immediately operate on the bearer of that letter (the woman) to remove the six (6) inches scissors which he forgot in her stomach four years plus. He told me that he also told the doctor to make sure that he does not ask the bearer of the letter (the woman) for one penny for the surgery. He also told the doctor which made the blunder to keep the woman in the hospital for 15 months because she needed to recover very well. He also told the erring doctor that if he fails to remove the scissors in a couple of hours, that his practising license will be nullified permanently. He told the woman to give him an immediate feedback after seeing the doctor. The woman left for the hospital where she was operated upon four years and three months ago. Once the doctor read the letter, he responded swiftly to remove what he forgot in the woman's stomach. If the standard of education has not dropped so low due to the ineptitude and carelessness of students, the random abandonment of surgical items in the stomachs of patients would not happen.

 4. Exposure of privacy and personal bio data:

The attitude of sharing someone's  personal data online is wrong. Cybercrime professionals can use such data to harm the owner of the information. Parents should tell their children to hide their privacy and bio data from the online thieves. 

5. Unnecessary social comparison and reduced self-esteem: 

In some cases, people want to be like other persons whom they saw online. Is it not extreme foolishness for a dwarf to think that he can become a giant overnight just because he had a chat with a giant online? Why should you want to be like another person, and within a short space of time, for that matter? That is simply living in a fool's paradise! Parents should get their children seated and warn them to avoid comparing themselves with anybody, no matter how big or small the person may be. Children should learn how to weigh words and actions of people before assimilating them hook, line, and sinker! Most words that people speak are 100% lies, including those ones that we hear over the national radios, televisions, and newspapers (tabloids). The children are not supposed to trust anyone online without first proving whether the person is real or fake. The children should not allow the social media to erode them of self-esteem and dignity.

The following are suggested parental strategies to develop children properly:

1. Parents should set clear boundaries and rules, setting time limits for watching televisions and navigating smart phone apps. They are to closely monitor their children's digital activities, including the need to know the websites which the children like visiting always, and why. They should stop their children from watching blue films and pornographic pictures. If the children are addicted to pornographic videos, it will take only God's intervention alone to stop it!

2. The parents should advise their children to regularly engage in outdoor physical games, sports, and other hobbies to make them physically fit. 

3. Children should be educated about online safety, cyberbullying, and digital citizenship. 

4. All parents should demonstrate responsible digital behaviour by limiting excessive screen time and engaging in good activities for the children to emulate.

5. Parents are required to regularly monitor their children's digital activities and engage in conversations with them about their digital experiences and interests. Parents should make sure that their children are not engaging in watching blue films or pornographic pictures. If they engage into it and get addicted, their academic performance will doubtlessly drop to the lowest ebb because they will be grappling with absorptive capacity deficit. Parents are supposed to be familiar with the websites that their children usually visit and the frequency of the visits. Parents are advised to use softwares that help monitor and limit digital activities. Parents can consult internet guides and resources that provide tips for online safety and digital citizenship. Only apps which promote learning, creativity, critical thinking and reasoning skills should be visited by both parents and their children. Where possible, parents should enrol in courses, seminars, and workshops, that can educate them about digital literacy and online safety. 

International agencies have emphasized the importance of parents being responsible role models and establishing open communication with their children in this digital age. This involves setting clear boundaries, monitoring digital activities, and educating children about online safety, and digital citizenship. Children should be cautioned not to accept any invitation from any online friend without the consent of their parents to do so. Some girls which were invited by their online friends for visits were slaughtered like rams and used for whatever purposes their killers wanted to use them for. As I am writing this post, I know too well that no matter how I emphasize on the need for safety consciousness when online friends invite our children, many of them, mostly young girls, will always fall prey to the online predators. Girls and young women always feel that their online friends mean no harm, whereas the harms are too real awaiting them. Samson did not know Delilah's evil intention against him. She hid the blade that she used to shave his logs of hair where Samson's power was. William Shakespeare said that there is no art to find the mind's construction on the face. Evil people laugh more than good ones. They use the laughter to cover the evil they want to do. The children should not fall prey to the evil persons online any longer. The United Nations has highlighted the indispensable need for parents to prioritize face-to-face interactions and emotional connection with their children, as excessive screen time can lead to decline in empathy and deep thinking. International agencies have also stressed the importance of digital literacy skills for parents, enabling them to effectively guide their children's online activities and promote responsible digital behaviours. This includes, teaching children to critically evaluate online information, identify misinformation, and develop healthy skepticism towards online content. Parents should foster open and honest dialogue with their children about their online experiences and concern. They should also regularly monitor children's online activities and adjust parenting strategies as needed for optimum results.

Below are the goals of digital literacy:

1. It should encourage responsible technology use and digital literacy.

2. It is intended to protect children from.cyberbullying, harassment, and other innumerable online threats.

3. It is to encourage face-to-face interactions, empathy, and social skills.

4. Digital literacy enhances learning and academic achievements by providing resources for online courses, seminars, and workshops.

5. It is intended to equip the children with skills, knowledge, and values necessary to thrive in rapidly growing digital world.

In summary, by being aware of the opportunities and challenges of parenting in the digital era, parents can take proactive steps to promote healthy digital habits, ensure online safety, and foster a positive relationship with technology.

Please, share with your friends and loved ones. Thank you very much.