Digital Familie‪s‬ Leonie Smith

Many parents are really struggling to help and supervise their children's online world and learning. Why are parents being blamed and marginalised for "Bad Digital Parenting" Is this fair? 

In her latest research and book "Parenting For A Digital Future" Professor Sandra Livingstone asked parents from all sorts of backgrounds about what their hopes were for their children in regard to a digital future. She and her colleague Alicia Blum-Ross found that many parents were really struggling to manage digital technology, and were sadly left out of a lot of initiatives and conversations around their own children's online education. In this podcast Sonia and I discuss some of her findings and discuss possible solutions to help parents find the task of digital parenting easier and more equitable.

My guest today is Fred Bretthauer. Fred is a senior Family Dispute Mediator with Catholic Care and a committee member of the Family Law Pathways Network in Sydney. He has been resolving family separation disputes for over 10 years, he also runs education seminars for parents who are experiencing ongoing conflict. Family disputes involving the digital world have also been starting to impact the work that he does.

During this podcast Fred and I talk about how families can have less drama around digital device use, about parents as mentors and negotiating use of technology with better safer outcomes. 

With Christmas almost upon us, many parents are looking into buying their little one a new smart toy, watch or device. 

But how do we choose a safe digital toy for our children, what do we need to consider with safety and in particular what about privacy? We know that Tech companies use our data to market to us, this includes where we live, how old we are, location data showing the trips we take each day, and generally where we go online. But children are supposed to be exempt from that data scraping aren’t they? Also how secure are these devices from hackers and spys or over reaching marketing companies?

Samantha Floreani is a Privacy & Technology Specialist at Salinger Privacy, Samantha also sits on the Board of the Australian Privacy Foundation.

In todays Digital Families Podcast Samantha lays out her top tips for parents to consider when buying a smart device or toy for their child. 

My guest on the Digital Families Podcast today is Catherine Knibbs

Catherine is a Clinical Doctorial Researcher, Consultant, Public Speaker, Author and Child & Adult Trauma Psychotherapist. She writes about and works with “Cybertrauma” which is any trauma that occurs through an internet ready device. Catherine is undoubtably one of the most experienced and informed therapists and academics in the field of psychology around online exposure to traumatic online events. Including shared live videos of self harm or violence to others.

Catherine gives her tips for parents and authorities on steps to take when traumatic content is being shared online, to prevent it from being shared further, or searched for when warnings to parents and educators are issued.

Find out more about Catherine Knibbs Here: https://cybertrauma.co.uk https://www.catherineknibbs.co.uk

In the age of digital misinformation and hoaxes being shared prolifically online we are now at a point that we are now having protests on the streets from folks who believe that Covid19 is a hoax and Bill Gates is going to insert a microchip in our veins through a Covid19 vaccination, and flat earthers seem to be gaining voice online.

In todays podcast I chat with Dr Diana Bossio Senior lecturer and researcher in Media and Communication at Swinburne University of Technology, about where these hoaxes and falsehoods come from, who's pushing them and why? How can we as ordinary users of the internet and social media discern the real from the fake?

Last years Momo challenge hoax, the blue whale hoax and others like it are spreading on the apps our children are using like TikTok Instagram and Snapchat. How can we as parents help our children to be more discerning and help them with their fears?

Kayelene Kerr from eSafeKids is recognised as one of Western Australia’s most experienced specialist providers of Body Safety, Cyber Safety, Digital Wellness and Pornography education workshops.

In todays podcast Kayelene and myself talk about "Online Child Abuse" How can we tackle this insidious and horrific crime as a community. "Self produced child abuse" is an overwhelming problem for law enforcement which has escalated during Covid19, with more and more children being blackmailed or co-erced to share child abuse material to paedophiles through online channels.

What can we, as parents do to protect our children whilst they are online, as well as help our children to recognise when they are in danger?

What are the signs that your child is being groomed? What games and platforms are paedophiles using to contact children? And what is law enforcement doing about this?

See more about Kayelene Here: www.eSafeKids.com.au