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Parenting can feel lonely sometimes. Especially when it feels like you’re the only one who is trying to set up safety rules and get a handle on what your child is exposed to.
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Working together
Take your child's online safety to the next level with our customized parent workshops.
The truth about what you’re experiencing
Being obsessed with tech doesn’t happen by accident: Tech companies actively design apps and games to be more addictive.
If you’re anything like the people we help, you are feeling stuck between a rock and a hard place: Technology surrounds us, but it’s not all appropriate for children. In a world that cannot function without technology, guiding your children to be safe online without getting consumed by it can feel hard.
It’s hard because you probably didn’t grow up with it.
How are you supposed to teach a little person something you never had to learn?
It’s hard because you want to say “yes” to fun, to socializing, and to online connections.
It’s not easy to say “no” or limit things that seem fun and harmless..
It’s hard because the internet has a dark and scary side, but can also be very useful.
Finding safe spaces online can be really hard, especially when nasty ads pop up and derail the good content.
It’s hard because the cool apps and games for kids are always changing.
Trying to keep up with all the changes is nearly impossible—isn’t the “dark web” just a website on the internet?
It’s hard because you don’t want your child to be the only one without a cell phone.
Being left out or left behind is painful, and you don’t want either of those things for your child.
It’s hard because when your child is on a screen, peeling them away from it seems as possible as removing duct tape from tissue paper.
The thought of trying to limit screen time feels impossible.
It’s hard because you want to do the right thing for their health—especially their mental health.
…but taking it away causes so much conflict that it’s easier to just let them have it.
And it’s hard because you want to do right by your family, but in truth, you also spend more time than you’d like to on your devices.
Which really means that you need help, too.
Good news, we can help.
Online Safety 101 with Lisa Honold was a great workshop! I learned about practical tools to build a culture of safety for our family-the online contracts, the filtering devices available for purchase, and services that allow parents to monitor and support a healthy relationship with screen time and being online. It was great for me and other parents to hear that it's normal to be unsure about how to navigate parenting in a digital age."
— Cailyn Murray, Parent
It’s time for intentional screen use
We believe our children and young people deserve to be safe online: Free from the pressure to be perfect; protected from child predators.
Screens are not going away.
That means that video games, the internet, and social media are here to stay.
This also means that taking away screens completely will do more harm than good. Young people need to learn how to be safe online while they are still have your guidance. If, when they finally leave home, they haven’t practiced self-regulation skills or they aren’t aware of the dangers out there, they are likely to suffer greatly at the hands of a screen.
It’s time to get started today.
It’s time to educate yourself on what really is happening online and what you can do to keep your children safer—because most parental controls are easier to get around than handcuffs in an escape room.
Did you know?
Here’s a list of things that you need to know about what’s happening online today, right now, in this moment:
While gaming, adult predators are attempting to lure them in such a cunnning way, kids feel as if they are making real friends. This is especially true for boys.
Online threats and “sextortion” feel so real that children—and older teens—are compelled to follow the instructions of predators, because they are scared something will happen if they don’t.
When anonymous apps, like those inside Snapchat, allow peers to send dozens of hateful messages, publicly shaming the recipient, children and teens often feel such incredible humiliation and hopelessness. A few have even taken their own lives.
Children are being exposed to explicit sexual images—including horrifying ones of other children and animals. Many of them are first shown these images by other children on the school bus, at sleepovers, and even in the cafeteria as adults walk by and don’t notice.
While being kidnapped into the sex trade might seem less possible for “wholesome American kids”, the reality is that COVID-19 changed all that—when smugglers were unable to get children in from overseas because of restrictions on international flights, they turned their attention to children already in this country.
Young people, especially girls—ones who get good grades and happily babysit for local families—are considering ending their lives because of the lack of wanted attention on social media.
Dangerous online challenges are encouraging youth to be reckless. Some have been injured and a few have accidentally died.
And although we don’t have research on kids in the trans community, we know that members of the LGBTQ+ community have much higher rates of depression and mental health issues, which have been directly correlated with online harassment and discrimination.
When you give a kid a smartphone, you’re not just giving them a phone—you’re giving them access to anyone in the world—and you’re providing other people access to them, too.
There are so many things to fight about —don’t let tech be one of them.
