What Parents Should Know about this Wired- From-Birth Generation U NDERSTANDING THE D IGITAL N ATIVE Click to view video

A BOUT T ODAY ' S K IDS ….  75% of year-olds now own cell phones  Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day, or 1,500 texts a month, and one in three send more than 100 texts a day, or more than 3,000 texts a month

A BOUT T ODAY ' S K IDS ….  55% of all online American youths ages use online social networking sites  Facebook is the most popular Social Networking Site. Twitter is least with only 8% reporting using Twitter Click to view video

A BOUT T ODAY ' S K IDS ….

Student discussions include college or college planning; learning outside of school; news; careers or jobs; politics, ideas, religion, or morals; and schoolwork."

A BOUT T ODAY ' S K IDS ….  97% of teens ages play computer, web, portable, or console games  The five most popular are Guitar Hero, Halo 3, Madden NFL, Solitaire, and Dance Dance Revolution

A BOUT T ODAY ' S K IDS ….  One-third of teens age and a quarter of tweens age 8-12 watch TV on the internet  Youth spend an average of 1500 hours per year watching TV  TV is on in an average U.S. home: 6 hours, 47 minutes per day

D ID YOU K NOW ?  MP3 devices are used to play MP3 (music) files and are increasingly taking the place of CD’s and radios for teens.  One in five Americans over the age of 12 now own portable MP3 Players and one in 20 own more than one.

D ID YOU K NOW ?  Electronic books or Ebooks are a growing trend among teens and adults  The sales of Ebooks in the past 3 years have increased over $110 million in the U.S. alone.

D ID YOU K NOW ?  55% of teens reported using chat rooms online in 2000  Only 18% reported using chat rooms is

D ID YOU K NOW ?  Two-thirds of teens never wear a watch, preferring cell phones and other means of keeping track of time  Fewer than 10% wear a watch all the time

D ID YOU K NOW ?  57% of teens create web pages, blogs, videos and other internet content  51% of teens download music  22% of teens have a personal webpage  35% of teens use the internet to research or buy products Click to view video

W HAT ARE THE D ANGERS ?  42% of kids have been bullied while online. 1 in 4 have had it happen more than once.  Surveys show that one in five of our kids will receive sexual advances while online but that less than 25 per cent of them will inform a parent or adult.  89% of all sexual advances towards our children take place in internet chat rooms and through instant messaging

W HAT ARE THE D ANGERS ?  ‘Sexting’ (sending nude photos via text message) is increasingly common among teens. 20% of teens said they had sent or posted nude or semi nude photos or videos of themselves.  In 2009, 3 teen girls and 3 male classmates in Pennsylvania who participated in ‘sexting’ were charged with child pornography.  In 2009, a Florida teen was required to register as a sex offender because of ‘sexting’.

W HAT ARE THE D ANGERS ?  Kids sometimes share too much information with strangers  62% of kids post photos of themselves online, 50% share their real age, 45% the name of their school, and 41% the city where they live. 14% post their cell phone number.  between 1995 and 2000, approximately 135 children were abducted or molested as a result of Internet contact

W HAT ARE THE D ANGERS ?  34% of children ages 10 to 17 were exposed to unwanted sexual material on the Internet  A poll from the National Sleep Foundation said teens with four or more electronic items in their bedrooms were twice as likely to fall asleep in school.  The risk of becoming depressed was 2.5 times higher among teens who were addicted to the Internet compared with those who weren't according to research from Australia

S O H OW C AN P ARENTS P ROTECT K IDS ?  Get to know the Internet. Get to know the words and terms used to describe what happens online and on the Internet.  Do not put the computer in your child’s bedroom or other “hidden” area. Computers should be in an open place where you can see what is going on  Talk to your kids about their online habits

T EACH Y OUR K IDS TO …  Never reveal personal information online including groups they may belong to.  Never have an online friend that their parents don’t know about.  Remember that online friends that they have chatted with for a long time are still strangers. All of the rules about strangers still apply.  Never agree to meet somebody they met online in person.

H OW TO R EALLY B EGIN TO U NDERSTAND YOUR K IDS …  Join a Social Networking Site they belong to.  Text your child daily to ask how they are doing  Explore the internet sites they visit  Play a video game with your child  Ask your child questions about technology

F OR M ORE I NFO …    Lampasas Middle School Created by S. Petrey 1/4/2011 Click to view video