Sexting & internet safety rank in top 10 list of child medical concerns
Thursday, September 3rd, 2015August 2015 Monthly Round Up
AVG Technologies Security Evangelist, Tony Anscombe, explains that the results of a recent Harris Poll survey commissioned by AVG indicate that the cyber safety concerns for youth equipped with internet-enabled devices are all about the parent.
A recent article by Medical Press released new survey data about the health concerns for youth, featuring sexting and internet safety at the top of the list along with childhood obesity. According to the report, the level of concern about internet safety and sexting ranks higher than youth smoking. The impact of cyber technology on the health and well being of our young “really dominates the story this year,” the report said.
Most parents probably respond to this headline with “no duh!”. This struggle with the myriad issues, complications and opportunities mobile connectivity introduces into family life plays out in homes and communities around the world every day. The headlines featuring risks include ISIS recruiting youth through social media propaganda, teen depression and anti-social behavior linked to over use of social media, sex trafficking and child porn predators, and sexting and the bully problem in cyber-powered school student bodies.
In my interview last week with AVG Technologies security executive, Tony Anscombe, he shared the recent Harris Poll survey findings of a study they commissioned which indicated that the cyber threats for youth are tied to the role of the parent. “The kids are not the problem,” Anscombe said, “It is the parents who do not regulate their own use of smart phones and get educated about what the kids are doing on-line and provide some supervision that leave children vulnerable.”
According to Anscombe, the good news is that the survey also found that the younger the parent, the more engaged and proactive they are about monitoring and supervising their children’s devices. At the time of the interview, the survey data had not yet been released for publication, but he did share that only 41 percent of parents with children aged three to 17 years set up filters for their child’s devices, and of this finding younger parents set up parent controls at twice the rate of older parents. This is a good sign, and also a natural by-product in my mind that tech-savvy kids grow up to be tech-savvy parents.
Relationship trumps technology: Soul talk
Like any innovation, it can be a blessing or a curse depending upon how it is used. In the cyber realm there is no disputing that motive is everything. And as this first generation of digital natives (born after 1990) enter parenthood, the technology will continue to evolve and innovate to capture the hearts and minds of individuals. And one thing will remain at the heart of our well being in a hyper-connected world: relationship and motive. The value of a tech-savvy and non-tech-savvy parent engaged and monitoring the cyber-social realm of their children is about the relationship; it is about investing your attention, your heart and mind, into educating your child about their worth (i.e., they matter because they were born and they are loved unconditionally) and to realize their own inherent capacity to set limits and learn to take responsibility for their own thoughts and actions on and off-line, especially when they are caught in a risky trap or suffering the consequences of risky choices.
For many it is a counter-intuitive truth that cyber safety is not about being tech-savvy. In fact, cyber safety is rather a matter of soul talk, which is fearless. It is the fear-inspired control issues of bullying, addiction and exploitation amplified in the social network that disturb our peace and keep us from connecting to protect, nurture and heal the soul – if we allow it. My faith informs me that when we replace our fear with trust in the thoughts that come from the heart of God, who is Divine Love, then it is possible to truly engage the intellect and will of the child into an open dialogue about how their childhood experiences are informing them – no matter how joyful or disturbing or shame-inspiring.
Oct 3, 2015 symposium on teaching tech-savvy kids to know their worth is more than sex and money. Carmichael, CA
Teach Your Digital Native to Know Their Own Worth
To that end, BMF is hosting its next symposium Saturday, October 3, 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Carmichael at the Living Smart Foundation headquarters. The featured theme is: Teach Your Digital Native to Know Their Own Worth.
Objective: Internet porn, sextortion, sex trafficking and the intrusive manipulation of internet consumer advertising can be addressed by teaching children to know their worth as human beings, and how to put the role of sex and money in their world into proper perspective. To learn more and register, go to: Fresh Start Symposium – Teach Your Digital Native to Know Their Own Worth
NOTE: 3 Sponsor spots are available. To learn more about sponsorship, access this flyer: Sponsorship packet.
2015 August Round Up
EVENTS
Fresh Start Family Culture Trainer Certification
Friday, September 11, noon to 4pm in Roseville (near the Fountains)
This special offer registration fee is $35 (by September 10). This trainer certification was created to encourage deep and practical conversations about spirituality and faith around the divine principles of freedom that belong to every human being on the planet and offer tools to help restore family systems. Below is a link to a special offer, $35 for a certification training. Please feel free to invite a colleague. I hope you can make it.
Here is the private link to learn more and register at the special rate: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fresh-start-for-patients-and-their-families-tickets-18190023851
ABOUT FRESH START
Fresh Start is a crash course to help parents, faith leaders, educators and healers relate to digital natives (born after 1990 and cannot imagine the world without the internet) who are seeking authenticity in a hyper-connected world that features fear and fakery (bullying, addiction and exploitation). It involves seven short lessons about the new reality of growing up and parenting in a cyber-powered world, and four exercises to produce three final products: a family creed, a family motto and a short set of house rules. The objective is to create a family culture wherein the spiritual wisdom of the parent’s own faith can be conveyed in ways that build trust, inspire open communication, and strengthen individual and family resilience.
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Parent training: Fearless Communication with Teens & Young Adults
Workshop (two 90-minute sessions)
Why: Every child born after 1990 is a digital native, and must learn how NOT to give up their power to the bully, the drug and the device.
When: Monday, September 21, 2015 and Monday September 28, 2015
6:00pm to 7:30pm
Location: Recovery Happens, 3017 Douglas Blvd. Douglas Blvd., 3rd Floor Roseville, CA
Fee: $55.00 includes price of both classes and Fresh Start manual
Learn more and register today: http://tinyurl.com/q6lc8v9 or find more information at www.bananamoments.com or contact Joanna Jullien 916-521-7203
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Parent training: Bully prevention and intervention strategies for home and school
St. Joseph Marello Catholic Church is hosting a parenting seminar on the bully prevention and intervention. This event is ecumenical welcoming all faiths and open to the public at no charge.
Dates: Tuesday Sept. 15, 2015 6:30 – 8 PM and encore on Wed Sept. 16, 10 -11:30AM
You will learn: How children are experiencing a hostile social environment inspired by mobile connectivity, the nature of the crisis this creates for youth, signs that your child is involved or experiencing bullying, and strategies for prevention and intervention.
Location: St. Joseph Marello Catholic Church, 7200 Auburn Folsom Road, Granite Bay, CA 95746 — 916-786-5001 – For more information contact Joanna Jullien jullien@surewest.net.
Parent Tip: Worrying is not the same thing as caring because it is the product of anxiety, a relative of fear. And there is no fear in Divine Love. Put your trust into the thoughts that come from the heart of God, who is love. (1John 4:18).
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2015 August Articles
Cyber Safety for Families with Joanna and Jodie on 103.9FM The Fish Family Morning Show
- Signs that you are a mentally-fit cyber parent
- Setting expectations for the use of mobile devices in the classroom
- Back to school: How to identify and talk about new digital hangouts
- Preparing your tech-savvy child to be a good friend and classmate
Sacramento Cyber Safety Examiner
- Respond to your child’s school transition struggles with your faith in God’s promises, not your fear
- Help your child know the difference between stranger-danger and on-line friendships
- Teach your child to make smart internet browser choices
- Talking points about sex and sexual exploitation in the social network
- What every parent needs to know about privacy & streaming apps
- What the AshleyMadison hack teaches us about protecting personal data
- How to gather cyber safety intelligence from your child
- Preparing digital natives for cyber-safe career trends
- Making use of social media a privilege, not a right
2015 July Articles
Cyber Safety for Families with Joanna and Jodie on 103.9FM The Fish Family Morning Show
- Why parents should not grant their child privacy on or off line
- Teaching the value of money in the social network
- How to synch up with your child’s on-line experiences
- Tips to educate youth about your faith in a hyper-connected world
Sacramento Cyber Safety Examiner
- Empower your child through cyber-safe thinking
- How it is possible to cyberbully your own child
- Tips to use parenting gadgets for babys to strengthen bonding
- Pedophile who extorted child porn from teens in jail: FBI seeks to identify & help victims
- How the gift of faith promotes spiritual resilience for your child
- Descalating anxiety about transitions in middle school, high school &college
- Network culture competency tips for the modern parent
- Reddit’s rules to live by at home too
(BMB-0214)
ABOUT: Banana Moments Foundation is a non-profit education center founded in Roseville, CA to strengthen the parent-child bond in a hyper-connected world. The BMF mission is to restore families with the mustard seed of faith that declares liberty already belongs to the soul because one God grants every human being intelligence and free will and that is power that can never be taken, but is easily surrendered to the bully, the drug or the device. To that end, ten percent of all BMF proceeds are donated to prison ministries. Your Donations are greatly appreciated.
Joanna Jullien
(Photo: Christi Benz)
Joanna Jullien is an author, educator and speaker on strengthening the parent-child relationship in a cyber powered world. She is a mother of two grown sons, the author of The Authority In Me: The Power of Family Life in the Network Culture, produces The Sacramento Cyber Safety Examiner column on Examiner.com, and is the CyberParenting advisor on The Fish 103.9FM. Her new book, A Google World in the Garden of Eden: Five Family-Safe Strategies for Texting and Social Media is now available for PC and all eReader formats including Kindle, Nook, iPad.
- Cyber safety for kids and families on TheFish103.9FM (videos)
- Follow Joanna @CyberParenting
- Like Banana Moments
- Sacramento Cyber Safety Examiner
- Sign up to receive Banana Moments quarterly and monthly updates
- Email: Jullien@surewest.net
