Digital Parenting: Raising Teens In A High-Tech World Without Losing Your Mind

Parenting today is very different from how it was thirty years ago. Today's generation of parents is confronted by the natural challenges of raising children. They also have to adjust their parenting styles with the digital influences surrounding everyone's lives. This is the internet age and parents are just starting to get used to digital parenting.

There are no hard and fast rules to parenting, especially when confronted by the complications brought about by modern technology. Parents have to navigate each day, as they try to understand the fast-paced life of their children who have made technology their best friends. There is a way to catch up with modern parenting if they understand what they are against to.

Teenagers reportedly spend eight hours every day on the average engrossed in various forms of media, according to Ed News Daily. National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse data shows 87 percent of teenagers own a mobile phone and 31 percent of them own smartphones. These dopamine gadgets have become tools that keep the children glued to social media.

Social media have different age requirements for opening an account, from Facebook's 13 years old to YouTube's 18 years old. Parents should be there to guide their children when they show interest in the online world.

Children may know more than their parents when it comes to technology. But it is always a good thing to remind them of how the social media works and how their online behavior can affect other people, Elearning Feeds reported.

Kids today may be among the first batch raised in the age of technology but parents are also among the very first ones to be called high-tech parents, according to Becoming Minimalist. Parenting in the digital age could be very tricky and it is important to narrow down not only the age gap but also the technology gap between parent and child.

Technology is here and it will be around even when these children become adults. Instead of discouraging technology in your homes, parents should make sure they equip their children with the right values and skills to use these technologies to benefit them.