Kids, technology and common sense

Posted June 17th, 2008 at 6:00 am by Dory Devlin, Yahoo! Tech Blogger

 5 Comments / Filed in: Guest Opinions, Trends & News

Every day, it seems, kids are using technology more for fun, for school, and for keeping in touch with friends. Keeping up with everything they do with technology is a real challenge for parents.

Kids don’t email often anymore. They text-message and send instant messages faster than you can figure out what they’re saying, and sometimes faster than they know what they’re saying. The new iPhone will be available in July; just what does that mean for the kids who use iPhones? There are plenty of controls parents can put in place to help guide their kids to use the web safely, but it’s not always the simplest information to find. And even when we put controls in place, kids grow into teens quickly and move beyond simple controls. They need to learn how to navigate the online world safely, and parents need to know how to help them find their way.

There are some great resources on the web for parents to learn all of this, of course. It’s just often hard to know where to look. Yahoo! Kids launches its new Parents channel this week with some of the best resources and top minds who have been looking out for kids on the web under one roof: Yahoo! Kids Parents.

You’ll find Larry Magid, a longtime technology journalist and Internet safety advocate blogging about safety issues, including what parents need to know about the new, less-expensive iPhone that will surely make its way into more kids’ hands. Larry contributes to CBS News, The New York Times, The San Jose Mercury News and several other major news outlets.

He also is the co-director of ConnectSafely.org, an interactive web site for teens, parents, and educators with Anne Collier, who also is blogging on Yahoo! Kids Parents. Anne and Larry are the co-authors of “MySpace Unraveled: A Parent’s Guide to Teen Social Networking.” Anne has been providing some of the best kid-tech news to parents in an accessible, measured way on NetFamilyNews, and she’s now bringing her well-informed, clear-eyed perspective to Yahoo! Kids.

As a Yahoo! Tech blogger for the past few years, I followed Anne and Larry’s take on kids and technology closely. I also checked in often on Common Sense Media, a wonderful resource for parents to vet movies, video games – all media available for kids to consume. Now, you can find all of these and more expert voices and resources on Yahoo! Kids Parents to make sense of the latest technology advances and what they mean for kids of all ages. I’ll also be blogging on Yahoo! Kids Parents, in addition to blogging for my daily Yahoo! gig, editor of Shine Work+Money.

Finally, a place on the web to find reliable information from several trusted sources about kids, technology, and online safety.

Dory Devlin

Yahoo! Kids Parents Tech Blogger

Photo from galina135

Tagged: Guest Opinions, online safety, yahoo kids

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5 Comments Add your own

gag | June 17th, 2008 at 10:30 pm

cute fascinating photo
it would be nice if kids old phones could be used as accessory for other gadgets or act as toy parts or used as filter or firewall

gurtey | June 18th, 2008 at 6:38 am

Tech kids dpo really use Iphones…! lol!

Julie | June 19th, 2008 at 5:40 pm

What a great resource for parents. I love it.

Luke Gilkerson | June 26th, 2008 at 8:39 am

Common Sense Media is a good resource. I’ve always gotten a lot out of it.

Internet Filtering is a great tool, but it’s not the only kind of software out there. Have you ever heard of accountability software? Accountability software is specifically for adults who want to guard where they go online without any blocking or filtering. Combined with filtering, it’s a great Internet safety solution for the whole family. If you want more info about it check out my post “Is Filtering All There Is?” - http://www.covenanteyes.com/blog/2008/06/12/is-filtering-all-there-is-introducing-accountability-software/

Also, check out - http://www.blog.cantufind.com/2008/06/24/covenant-eyes/

Joy | November 21st, 2008 at 12:13 am

Everybody says that parents knows best for their children.

With the use of internet kids can browse different websites including those unsuitable site. In this case parents control over the internet is an advantage to prevent their child visiting those unsuitable website. Yahoo made a great job for launching the parent channel.