How to give your kids a meaningful life in the Digital Era

In this digital era, detaching your kids from gadgets might be possible. However, the good news is, you don't need to try too hard. With a little effort you can help your kids grow in the best way possible without entirely separating them from their chat messenger apps. NEEO Messenger is a chatting app with several fun features to entertain you and help you communicate effectively with friends and family. There’s also an inbuilt chat translation feature that enables users to do business on an international level. It takes care of language barriers so users can converse with foreigners via text and audio messages. Exercising any kind of control over your children, who already being controlled by WIFI devices, requires patience and persistence.

1. Have rational conversations:

You might think you can control your child by physically being around all the time, but that doesn’t work well for all ages. Children over the age of seven have independent mindsets and need proper reasoning to be convinced. Give your kids quality time and communicate with them. Let them know which sites are harmful and why. Tell them they can use the internet twice daily for not more than an hour. Aside from allotting the hours, for kids over seven but less than fifteen, you can keep a curfew for phone usage.

2. Inform them of other benefits:

In this day and age, children cannot be kept away from the internet. Students are required to use the internet for online lessons and assignments. If you see your kids using the internet only for entertainment, let them know of its other purposes. Tell your kids how they can look up the meanings of different words, or how they can even find books online. Show them how they can learn new skills by watching self-learn videos.

3. Ask for their help:

Open up to your children and use your chat messenger apps in front of them. Depending on the age of your kids, discuss the experiences you’ve had with chatting apps, both positive and negative ones. If you've got a teenager at home, ask for his help in using some of the features of an online app. Kids immediately get excited when an adult asks for help with something they like and are familiar with. Ask your kid how you can turn on your privacy settings and what they're useful for. While learning how to use the app, you'll get to know how much your kid knows about the app.

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4. Remind them of their roots:

You need to help your kids understand that they should control their devices and that it shouldn’t be the other way around. Also, let them know that everything they see on the internet is not true and they should not blindly fall under someone’s influence. With so much exposure available online, kids can get pulled in any direction and forget where they’re heading. Keep reminding them about their roots so they don't go through an identity crisis later on.

5. Observe their behavior:

If you notice that your kid is glued to the internet or the phone all the time, it may be cause for concern. Create your own culture at home which consists of a healthy amount of family time, sports, reading, and other fun activities. Create a reading corner where you keep their favorite books and a lamp that lets off a bright warm light. Make the corner as cozy as possible with floor cushions and a soft rug. Keep a small table on the floor with some stationery items in case someone wants to make notes while reading.

6. Discuss cyber-bullying and its consequences:

While some kids might need to keep safe from cyberbullying, some might need to be reminded that it is a crime. Kids have been caught fooling people with fake identities. Some kids develop a love for hacking and think of it as a 'cool' skill without thinking of its repercussions.

Bullying someone online or hacking into their accounts is no less than a crime since it gives the victim mental stress, above everything else. Some victims of cyberbullying get affected so severely that they begin to feel suicidal. Teach your kids to be good human beings in the real world as well as in the digital world.

Parents who don't have time for their kids might be okay with the internet and attached devices keeping them busy all day. However, it would be unfair to say the same for parents who monitor their kids very cautiously while they use their chat messenger apps. They are cautious because they don't want their kids to feel so uncomfortable in their presence.

NEEO Messenger is a chatting app that discourages users from posting nude, vulgar, and hateful content on social media. Children above the age of thirteen can use the app and you can join the app with your kids to show them you belong to the same world that they’re in!