A presentation aimed at parents of children 8 years and up. Aim is to demystify the web and enable parents to guide their children in a positive manner rather than the shrill and pointless: "Get away from the computer and do something meaningful!"

1. Néné La Beet, 51 years
So, NOT a digital native then!
Librarian
Extensive work experience on
managerial level, especially within
the entertainment industry
Freelancer as copywriter, translater,
web “expert” for 10 yrs +
Attached to the web by some sort
of umbilical cord since 1995
Danish, married to Englishman who
lives in Switzerland, have lived in
the UK, two sons, 22 and 10.
Thursday, December 1, 2011

2. Thursday, December 1, 2011

3. “Digital Natives are naturally innovative, expressive
and investigative.” *
“Digital Natives are superficial, get easily stressed,
can’t concentrate.” **
* Quote from Don Tapscott. He’s on the Top 50 Business Thinkers list for 2011.
** Aggregated quote from every newspaper in the Western World
Thursday, December 1, 2011

4. A bit of “science”
Traditional Networkers
The Dunbar number Gamers Producers
(150)
The Strength of Weak
ties (Granovetter) 9%
9%
“Managing their digital identity, 40%
critical assessment of
webpages, reading strategies to
skim through search result lists
to find the relevant hit – these 42%
are not skills people are born
with.”
* NUMBERS ARE FRESH, COURTESY OF ANTOINE VAN DEN BEENT - QUOTE FROM ANNETTE Q. PEDERSEN
Thursday, December 1, 2011

5. I will touch upon these
subjects
Do you restrict your children’s computer access?
Do YOU know how Facebook, YouTube, etc. work?
Do you know what your children’s computer games are really like?
Does your child have a smartphone or access to one?
What are “the Danger Zones” on the web?
Wikipedia (who to trust)
I read it on the Internet
The do’s or the dont’s?
Thursday, December 1, 2011

6. Do you restrict your
children’s computer time?
There can be many (good) reasons to do so
But - make sure your reason(s) are rational!
Homework, exercise, family time and sleep are good reasons
“Sitting in front of the computer is bad for you” is not a good
reason. Because it depends on what they’re doing, right?
“Why don’t you read a book instead?” In theory, the kid could
be deep into a serious discussion about homework issues w
school friends on Facebook. And the book to replace it could
be cr*p. There are a lot of cr*p books out there!
Thursday, December 1, 2011

7. Facebook, YouTube,
Twitter, 4sq, etc. etc.
Let’s take a look at Facebook. As a parent, you MUST be on
Facebook. Even if you never use it, you need to understand
the basics of it. Once you understand that, it’ll be easy to
understand any other new social media.
And YouTube. Watch this video with your kids instead of just
talking. Make an account with your child. And check the
safety settings.
And Twitter
but not all the others, because there’s a new one every
week!
Thursday, December 1, 2011

8. Computer games
There are many different kinds of games
The BIG games, cost (a lot of) money, are known
trademarks, are constantly developed, can be
played both offline and online. WoW.
Kiddy games - expect your children to leave
them behind anytime soon and be prepared.
Facebook games, phone applications. Angry
birds. Wordfeud.
Thursday, December 1, 2011

9. THERE ARE OTHER USES FOR A SMARTPHONE THAN ANGRY BIRDS!
Thursday, December 1, 2011

10. Danger zones (imho)
Bullying - like the girl said in the YouTube video. Zero
tolerance. Teach your child to say NO! Be on e.g.
Facebook yourself, so you know how to deal with it,
quickly.
Fake friends - like the girl said and like we all say about
new people off line. Be careful, but also acknowledge
that the majority of contacts are legit and without malice.
What to trust. We must give our children the necessary
understanding to enable them to distinguish between
what’s trustworthy and what’s not.
Thursday, December 1, 2011

11. Wikipedia
WIKIPEDIA COMES CLOSE TO BRITANNICA
IN TERMS OF THE ACCURACY OF ITS SCIENCE
ENTRIES.
Thursday, December 1, 2011

12. Wikipedia (and what we
can learn from this story)
Wikipedia can not be the ONLY source for a school
essay from secondary school and up
But Wikipedia can often be a source of sources
And by explaining how Wikipedia works, you can teach
children a lot about source criticism and why this is
more important now than it has ever been
A Danish research team has recently looked at CIA’s
fact book and found numerous mistakes in the
information about Denmark.
Thursday, December 1, 2011

13. I read it on the Internet
Tip: EVERY TIME you hear somebody say this, ask them: “Where,
exactly, the Internet is a big place?”
Use easily understandable examples with your children:
girls - if you read information about tampons on the tampon-
producer’s homepage, do you think they recommend you to use few
or many, cheap or branded?
boys - if you read information about the excellence of a certain
scooter part on the producer’s homepage and in a scooter magazine,
which is the more trustworthy information?
Look and Feel: Which article is probably the most reliable?
tabloid, broadsheet, scientific publication
Thursday, December 1, 2011

14. I read it on the Internet II
User-generated content. Among it are customer
recommendations. Explain to your children how
these should be read with caution and what to
look out for
Give your children examples of how even
recognised scientists have written favourable
reviews of their own books on e.g. Amazon. And
unfavourable ones of the competition’s
Thursday, December 1, 2011

15. Do’s or don’t’s?
I suggest mainly DO’s
not least because children very easily go deaf to
don’t’s.
but also because this way you can be a role-
model instead of a police(wo)man.
If you need to set limits, make sure that it’s
crystal clear why.
Thursday, December 1, 2011

16. Thank you TEXT
for listening
On my website is a list of
links to pages and articles
I’ve referred to during this
presentation.
Thursday, December 1, 2011

17. CLICK ON FOR CHILDREN
BACK
Thursday, December 1, 2011