Parents Awareness Session at Nord Anglia School Dubai

Last week we had the pleasure of delivering a parents awareness session at Nord Anglia School Dubai. We had a great turnout. Lots of parents and lots of questions.

As usual, the gap between parents and children was emphasised. Unfortunately it seems to be getting bigger rather than smaller!

Something that we have noticed from delivering these sessions over the years is that there is always a great deal of interest during the session and immediately afterwards. A lot of questions asked.

What has to happen next though is action taken. We provide a lot of links and information but they remain links and information unless massive action is taken.

Two of the most important tools we discussed were Boomerang and iKydz

Boomerang

This app and software is amazing in terms of the control it gives you over what your children are accessing on their devices. There is also a very strong case with this particular app to go towards getting your childen andorid devices when they start asking. Aside from being cheaper, there is also more control to be had at an individual app level on android devices. The way that Apple is setup means this can’t be done. Click the link http://bit.ly/boomerangnas to get more information and see how this could help.

iKydz

This physical box is a great way to have your children log onto a secure network as soon as the walk through the front door. iKydz will allow you to implement age restrictions, block websites, filter content, schedule online access, block apps and block pop ups amongst other things. Click here http://bit.ly/ikydzNAS for more information.

The two elements together, iKydz and Boomerang help you control what your children have access to and when. It will also lead to scenarios where conversations have to happen and this is what we want. More conversations, more often about the digital space our children spend so much time in.

So implement the monitoring boxes on the wifi, get the monitoring software for the mobile devices. As a parent you are entitles to snoop on your children. In fact it’s part of the job description. Especially in an age when the consequences of not knowing what is happening in your children’s lives, online and offline, can be devastating.