Noah's Dad

(This is a sponsored post. I was invited to this event as part of Forward Influence and received compensation for going to this event and sharing about my experience. However, as a parent of three boys who live in a world surrounded by technology I’m passionate about the topic of helping my children grow up to be wise when it comes to spending time online.)

All of our children (especially Noah) are growing up huge fans of tech. Noah has used an iPad since he could hold one, and all of our kids are living in a where world when they can ask Google, Alexa, or Siri anything they want. As our children grow up, it’s my role as their dad to help them learn how to be wise (ie: awesome!) when it comes to being online.

This past week, our four-year old and I had the opportunity to learn from some people at Google about some new ways they are helping families help their kids be awesome when it comes to using the internet called through new program called “Be Internet Awesome“. We were able to tour an exhibit where they explained (via very create games) the 5 pillars of their Internet Code of Awesome: smart, alert, strong, kind brave. Basically they want to help children be all of these things when it comes to using the internet.

One things I took away from my time at this exhibit is:

…when it comes to our kids internet use we want to talk about it early and often.

I really thought this was wise advice. As a dad I want to talk to my children about technology at a young age, and I want to revisit those conversations often.

But…how do you have these conversations? I know it can sometimes be hard to have conversations with your kids about important topics, which is why it cab be helpful to have something structured to guide the conversation.

I was really impressed to learn that Google has put together a lot of free tools, including this incredible (and free) family guide. After checking out the guide you can even encourage your kids to play this interactive game where they can put to use what they learned. There are a lot of tools on their “Be Internet Awesome” page and I would encourage you to check them out to learn more.

Our kids our young, so we are likely more than a few years from our kids having their own connected technology, but our kids already spend a lot of time watching YouTube and plying on our iPad and so it’s important for us to talk about technology even at this young age. I know as they get older we will have to continue to have these conversations. I hope by talking about technology early and often my kids won’t view me as the “technology police” but as a loving parent who truly does want them to be “Internet Awesome.”

Parents, how do you handle technology in your household (by the way, no judgment here if you break out the phone while you’re eating out…we do that ourselves.) Do your kids have their own tech? Do they borrow yours? Do your kids want their own? Let me know in the comments!