Families and Technology

Smart TV’s are appearing in homes everywhere. You might have one. We do. I know that I don’t need to tell you that they are internet enabled. We can stream content through services like Netflix, use apps like YouTube, access social media accounts like Facebook, download and play games on the big screen and talk to family and friends with Skype – all from our living room. Great! So many options at our fingertips! But now I want you to […]

Sexting is the sending (texting) or receiving of sexually explicit or sexually suggestive words or images. Sexting can sort of sound like a fun thing to do with a close group of friends or maybe a long term partner but there can be some major fallouts. These texts can be easily circulated by forwarding them to others and shared via the many streams of social media. They become public very quickly. Unfortunately, you cannot get these images back or delete […]

Remember when there was a time that we only ever touched our mobile phones to make or receive phone calls? Now think back to yesterday. Could you even begin to count the number of times that you touched your phone? Phone calls, text messaging, emailing, checking your social media accounts and perhaps news websites or a bit of Googling. Each action takes time and the time our phones are in our hands adds up. While we are busy stressing about […]

There comes a time in most homes when we start to think about purchasing a new internet enabled device. This might be because of constant requests from your child for an iPad or maybe you’ve decided that they need a mobile phone for safety purposes. What about a gaming console for the whole family to share? Once you have decided that it is the right time to bring a new device into your home, there are some things you might […]

Why Should you Create a Family Technology Contract? The internet is both fun and educational but left unchecked, children are capable of disappearing down a rabbit hole, watching presents being un-boxed on YouTube while they are sitting on the toilet. You might think I say that in jest, but without boundaries placed upon the use of internet enabled devices in the home, this is exactly what can happen. Enter the Family Technology Contract. You may have heard them called Internet […]

I remember while I was growing up that we were routinely told that watching too much TV would ‘give us square eyes.’ Even when the only screen we had was a TV (and only one in the house!) our parents knew even way back then that it wasn’t a great idea for us to be sitting in front of it all the time. And honestly, I only recall watching TV for a short period after school each day, maybe some […]

School holidays are here and you suddenly have a flashback. Last time the kids were on holidays, screen time use got a little out of hand. It didn’t start off like that but there was a slow decline that led to all eyes glued to screens by the time school was ready to go back. Can you relate to this? It has happened to me before. The school term was a breeze when it came to managing screen use. Everyone […]

There are times when our routines become a little out of whack and the kid’s normal allocation of screentime inadvertently increases. No need to feel guilty or like you have to face a battle to bring the device use back to a more reasonable level. I’ve put together 40 ways to get your kids to put their screens down! They’ll probably be too busy having fun to even notice that they are spending less time playing Minecraft and watching music […]

Take a look at what happened when we did it. We have all looked at the top of our children’s heads as they are bent over their iPads and hoped that this time will be different. This time, when we ask them to put the ipad down and start their homework, they will do what we ask, without ‘losing it.’ But then we ask them and we find ourselves having the same conversation again. We had web content filters installed […]

What is Screen Time? “Screen time” is the amount of time spent watching TV, DVDs, playing video games, using computers, iPads and Smartphones. A healthy lifestyle keeps screen time to an acceptable limit. And now it’s school holidays and the kids screen time has gone into overdrive! Here is a novel way of making sure that the kids days are balanced. It’s easy – they receive and use their 30 minute screen time tickets once a week and when they […]

How many of you have played ‘find the charger’? Or have you tried cooking dinner with multiple devices plugged in on the kitchen bench? Who has had to lend their charger to another family member who has misplaced theirs, only to find that your own device is going flat? We have all been there. Common Charging Problems in Most Homes The WiFi has been turned off for the night and devices have been left scattered around the lounge room. The […]

When I was growing up, I didn’t have any contact with computers until my high school years. We didn’t have one at home until my late teens. Photo sharing and instant messaging didn’t exist yet. Fast forward to today and there is a barely a day that goes by where my children are not on an internet enabled device! For now, they aren’t old enough to have social media accounts but that time isn’t too far off. Even so, we […]

How long will it be before your child stumbles across something inappropriate while they are online? Sadly, children don’t even need to go looking for trouble these days – it can pop up right in front them after clicking on what appears to be an innocent web link. What if there was a way to help protect them? Introducing Family Zone Family Zone is a cyber-safety solution that is both effective at filtering content and managing children’s online screen time […]

What is a Web Filter? A web filter is a program that decides whether a website should be allowed through your internet connection based on the rules that have been set up by the account holder. Why use a Web Filter? A web filter allows the account user to select categories they wish to be blocked when using their internet connection. Normally, a web filtering program will allow you to specifically list websites that you would like to block or […]