Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

Digital Grounding and loss of Facebook Privileges

The Washington Post article from September 5th, “Parents use ‘digital’ grounding as a 21st century disciplinary tool,” includes some good ideas for parents of digital age kids. Facebook is a privilege, not a right. Kids CAN survive without digital access to their peers for awhile, particularly if their device use is getting in the way of important priorities, like academic studies. It can be a good idea to”friend” your own child to help keep tabs on their digital activities, and step in if they get far out of line.

Have you taken away access to digital technology as a consequence for your own children’s misbehavior? Have you friended your own children or younger relatives on social networking sites like Facebook? Have you spoken up when you’ve observed inappropriate comments or photos, or remained silent?

These issues and ideas would be great ones to raise with parents in discussions about Internet safety and digital citizenship.

HT to my mom for sharing this article on her Posterous blog.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad


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3 responses to “Digital Grounding and loss of Facebook Privileges”

  1. Michelle Rogers Avatar

    Both of my sons are on my Facebook friends list. And, I follow both of them on Twitter. Although, I have had them friended for a few years, now at the ages of 18 and 20, they have already had years of guidance from me. So, if there are inappropriate comments or photos from their friends, they are probably even more quick to let their friends know that in inappropriate than I am. There are few inappropriate instances, since most of their friends are the youth group and parents at our church. However, they do also have some friends from school, that, yes, they sometimes cross the line. But, as I said, they have already learned the difference and are generally quick to correct those things, themseles.

  2. Chris Patrick Avatar
    Chris Patrick

    My daughter is not the right age for social networking quite yet but when she gets there you can be sure that I will be keeping tract of her activities. I believe in our children having their privacy but we as parents and educators need to point them in the right direction to ensure they have a safe experience when using networks to socialize with friends. As Michelle said, when they get older they will have a great understanding of what is inappropriate or not.

  3. Caitlyn Bush Avatar
    Caitlyn Bush

    im a student, and my mom has friended me on facebook. i actually think (quite differently than my friends of course) that it is a very good thing that my mom has me on facebook. of course when im not in the best mood it can be annoying that she always knows about what im doing, but generally i think its quite good for our generation to have that kind of structure. with all the new technology nowadays children grow up much quicker than they used to and things become much more innapropriate on students personal pages. but if there is a parent or guardian that is keeping track then students will learn what is appropriate to share with the public.