Tag Archives: FYI play it safe

Devices, always connected to the internet, play a significant role in the childhood of our youngest generations.  There’s so much that is good in this, and so much also that is an outright threat to their mental and emotional well-being.  You might think that the worst of this is cyberbullying …

Parents of today’s adolescents grew up in a world where pornography was something you had to get your hands on, which was difficult to do while you were underage.  There wasn’t much of it around to start with, and then there was a host of regulations and restrictions that limited …

If you’re the parent of a teenager, you most likely don’t know as much about their online life as you should.  Our children are immersed in the digital world, inhabiting digital environments, and gathering in digital spaces that most parents don’t even know exist, never mind understand how to navigate.  …

The debates about whether children should own smartphones, and if so, at what age, have become a very modern parenting dilemma.  There are no ‘right or wrong’ answers to these ‘Big Questions’ about kids and smartphones.  The near-universal uptake of smartphones for children, at increasingly younger ages, is a clear …

Getting a first smartphone has become the major milestone of modern childhood, and many families are starting off the year with a new connected user in their midst.  Children are getting phones younger than ever, and parents need to be well-prepared.  Much like a teen getting their first car, the …

My kids got their own phones for the first time this year and it was something that I was very nervous about doing due to the dangers of kids being online. Fortunately at the time I was thinking about getting them phones I found out about FYI play it safe. …

When it comes to keeping your children safe online, solutions such as parental controls certainly can help.  However, there’s widespread agreement that parents need more than one strategy, and all online safety efforts will be more effective if they are underpinned by open communications between parent and child.  It’s not …

The warnings about letting your children become video and digital gamers can be overwhelming.  The list of risks is a litany of parental fears – addiction, social withdrawal and isolation; stunting in the development of empathy and numbness in the face of violence; disinterest in healthy enjoyments such as playing …

Most of our children are online every day.  The number of mobile devices in the hands of South African children rises year on year at almost every age point between 8 and 18 years of age.  None of this is surprising; the digital component of all our lives is ever-increasing …

FYI play it safe adds security while protecting privacy Over the past festive season and with the start of the new year, many parents have put new devices into the hands of their children.  For many, this is an action primarily aimed at increasing their child’s safety because it enables …