FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Common questions answered
Screen Time
It depends on their age and whether it’s fun or functional screen time
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Spending too much time in front of a screen means losing out on other activities and
experiences which are important to the development of your child. Too much screen time has proven detrimental impacts on young brains, eyes, bodies and mental health.
We like to distinguish between educational (or functional) and entertaining (fun) screen time. Screen time that combines both is first prize – such as MineCraft, brain games, word puzzles etc
Pornography & Violence
Online porn is hard-core and is being classified as the new drug. It is highly addictive and the younger the exposure, the greater the addiction. The aggressive/ submissive and violent theme of online porn significantly affects how young, developing minds view and approach intimate relationships later in life.
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Take a deep breath, read our blog to prep, and then sit down and talk to them. Use parental filters to prevent access to inappropriate adult websites, and to limit social media apps and games, which are often the initial source of exposure.
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Parents can get very defensive around accepting that their child exposed yours to
pornography. Remember that it was going to happen regardless of how it happened. Give yourself space to calm down before talking with the other parent, ideally in-person, and follow our guidelines in our blog.
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Gaming
Settings for games can be changed to protect the identity and location of your kids, to keep them safer.
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App and game developers use similar persuasive technology techniques to those used by the gambling industry, to make games irresistible, compulsive and hard to stop.
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Just like any professional sport, to be an eSport athlete you must show both Discipline and Evidence. Use their passion to drive them to build discipline (sticking to agreements) and competing in appropriate competitions to prove they have what it takes.
Social Media
Teens love social media but they need your guidance and inputs as it can affect their self-worth, confidence and general mental health. Most of the popular social media platforms like Instagram, SnapChat and TikTok, are real-age rated 16+.
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Settings for apps can be changed to protect the identity and location of your kids, to keep them safer.
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App and game developers use similar persuasive technology techniques to those used by the gambling industry, to make apps irresistible, compulsive and hard to stop. If you child’s Social Media use is negatively impacting their studies, sleep or relationships, talk to them about it.
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Filters & Limits
A: Try to wait as long as you can, to let your child use a smartphone. Set it up from the start with parental filters, and apply the “loan rather than own” principle, so that you can manage and control it. A cell phone contract is an excellent way to agree the rules of use and consequences of misuse.
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A: Make a Family Digital Alliance and agree how, when and where screens are used. Use screen time apps and/or WiFi routers to help guide and develop your family’s good digital habits.
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A: ScreenTime (iOs) and Family Link (Android) are a good start, but installing parental control filters on devices and WiFi are best.
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Settings
Tech companies monitor our likes and dislikes through every click we make, and use our data to channel our preferences, beliefs and opinions, and market products to us. Changing the default settings helps protect your online privacy.
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Default settings for phones, tablets, computers and gaming consoles can all be reset to protect data security and location.
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Start with your own phone, change your notification settings to stop your phones apps from contacting you for unnecessary reasons. Do you really need to know that you just got a new LinkedIn request?
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Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is prevalent on social media and online games, make it a habit of asking your child about their 'Digital Day' to keep lines of communication open about their online world. If they tell you they are being Cyberbullied, treat it as if it were in person bullying, contact the bullys parent, escalate to a teacher if need be, and be sure to take a screenshot the bullying so you can have a discussion about it.
Congratulate your child on speaking up. Teach your child to be a Cyber Superhero: an Upstander rather than a Bystander.
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An Upstander is someone who speaks up in support of a victim of cyberbullying. A Bystander takes the easier route of avoiding the conflict they are observers too.
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Getting your child to open up to you requires consistently asking them about what is going for them, do it daily, and don’t be specific about the bullying, when they feel more
comfortable, they will open up. Also, institute a new rule that all phones are out of
bedrooms at night, as this is when most cyberbullying occurs.
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Stranger Danger
If you wouldn’t open your front door to strangers and let them play in your child’s room, monitor who they are talking to online.
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Take screenshots of messages, save images or videos and report it immediately to the child protection authority in your jurisdiction!
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Unless you have made sure that your child can only talk with certain users who you have approved are their friends, or you have set up a private chat channel, you have to assume they are open to being contacted by unsupervised adults, which is a risk that is not worth taking.
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5 STAR REVIEWS
What Our Customers Say
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Josh and his team bring significant experience, best practice and the latest tech to the digital wellness space. Our learnings through Be In Touch really emphasize the dire need for all parents to step into a space or knowing how to manage your child’s online journey always supporting healthy usage. I highly recommend working with Josh 
Misha Teasdale
December 14, 2020 - An amazing organization made up of an amazing team! Extremely proud to be associated with BIT!
Russell Pengelly
December 14, 2020 - Be in Touch is an absolute invaluable initiative and resource for parents and their children, and even for grandparents like myself, as we navigate this ever growing digital landscape. The digital connected world has such incredible value, but also many challenges, as not only we are being exposed to very powerful negative agendas over the web, but also the danger of devices being the new addiction. Josh and team, thanks so much for coming form a deep values-based motivation to support us in this way.
Tertia Smit
December 17, 2020 - Very important for all families with young children, tweens and teens!
Susan Tasker
December 10, 2020 - Simple, insightful - what all busy parents need
Rmd Gammatec
December 10, 2020 - deeply thoughtful ideas to help parents with meaningful control over the acess to social media for their children.
TimRobin Farina
December 10, 2020 - The solution could not be more relevant.
Arno Van Der Walt
December 15, 2020 - Real, practical guidance that can save us a lot of damage and drama. A stitch in time n all. Thanks Josh!
Linda Wilson
December 14, 2020
We really and truly believe that the key to parenting this online generation is... talk, talk and talk some more. Keep looking for ways to chat to your tweens and teens, and keep the conversation going!👍
#beintouch #digitalgatekeeper #digitalfootprint #digitaltattoo #digitalvillage #digitalhabitsforlife #digitalparenting #talktoyourkids #consciousparenting #parenting
Link in bio!
Would you share a photo of your child online to protect them? #Share2Protect
SERIOUSLY? Share a photo of my child??
Join our worldwide campaign to get 50 000 photos of children aged 5-13, to “train” an Artificial Intelligence system to accurately estimate the real ages of children, to improve the ability of age estimation tech to keep kids out of the dark corners of the online world.
Be a part of the difference we want to see in our kids' digital worlds!
With your help in trainining this AI, we’ll be able to advocate for more digital fences - especially for sites and social media and gaming apps where there is a high risk of predators, sexual content, violence, self-harm and suicide, cyberbullying, drugs and alcohol.
It’s safe, quick and easy: click the link below - and then go ahead and spread the word to your family and friends #share2protect!
Putting aside the deeper question of what the real age rating of popular social media apps would be if app developers were actually regulated, it is easy peasy for kids to "tick the box" and say they're over 13. What to do??
Watch this space to find out! #share2protect @getyoti
#beintouch #yoti #ageestimation #keepkidssafe #saferinternetday #saferinternetday2021
Digital parenting is all about... getting your kids to use their cell phones PROPERLY 😂
#beintouch #besavvy #digitalparenting #keepthembusy #cellphone #goodscreentime
Where does your family charge their devices? Getting devices out their rooms at night is great life habit to start early!
#beintouch #familydigitalwellness #nogozone #gooddigitalhabits #digitalparenting
Parents are the first and most important gatekeepers of their children’s digital worlds, so go right ahead and OWN it!
#beintouch #licensetoparent #talktoyourkids #familydigitalwellness #consciousparenting #savethekids #savetheparents #digitalgatekeeper
A new year means ... NEW EMOJIS 😆👇
The Unicode Consortium (the governing body of emojis), has announced that they will release 117 new emojis this year! Look out for the Mending Heart, Pinched Fingers, Face in the Clouds, Heart on Fire - and greater variety in skin tones 👌
#beintouch #digitalparenting #socialmedia #emoji #2021 #emojis #teenslang #teenspeak
@futurecraftkids On board your kids to the Future-Craft World and let them GAME TO GROW!
www.future-craft.com
#goodscreentime #funandfunctional #gametogrow #minecraft #minecrafteducation #familydigitalwellness #futurecraft #futurecraftkids #futurecraftworld
LINK IN BIO
Hey parents!
We are giving away 2 FREE A FREE @futurecraftkids One FREE Future-Craft world with every registration over at https://future-craft.com/
We know kids can "game to grow" and have partnered with the amazing team at Computers4kids to create 12 FUN and educational Minecraft Worlds for ages 8 to 13 to play this Holiday season.
Your kids will learn 21st century skills while having fun in our safe, single player Minecraft worlds.
Our feedback to parents means you will get insights on what they are learning, and conversation cues to help you cross the "digital divide".
*Please note you need to have already purchased Minecraft to use our bespoke worlds
**12 Future-Craft world adventure pack was $29 NOW $19 for January!
How about making time for more "face to face" conversations these holidays? Talking in person comes with the benefit of all sorts of body language cues that are key to really understanding and "getting" each other. And if it must be written, THINK, is it -
True
Helpful
Inspiring
Necessary
Kind?
#beintouch #digitalparenting #consciousparenting #think #sayit #saywhatyoumean #bekind
Kate & Josh at Be In Touch, are really hoping your festive season will be - well, no other way to say it, but - G.O.A.T!
#beintouch #digitalparenting #famikydigitalwellness #socialmediaslang #teentalk #consciousparenting
What tech / life balance are you looking to bring into your family this festive season?
#beintouch #digitalparenting #familydigitalwellness #familytime #familychat #techbalance #techbalancedkids #consciousparenting #familyrules #digitalfamilyalliance #thinkaboutit
Keep in touch, stay in touch, just be in touch! Your kids need you to help guide them through their parallel digital universe.
#beintouch #digitalparenting #digitalwellness #talktothem #licensetoparent #conciousparenting #cybersavvy
Are phones on the Christmas list this year? LOANING rather than OWNING means you can keep a check on how and what they are used for. Download our editable Digital Family Pledge, to help you set the ground rules for building good digital habits for life. Now THAT is one of the best gifts you can give your kids! https://beintouch.org.za/resources/
#beintouch #digitalparenting #loannotown #cybersavvy #consciousparenting #techsmart #licensetoparent #gooddigitalhabits
Got no tea to share today, sorry!
#beintouch #digitalparenting #socialmediaslang #slayit #tea
What does YOUR digital footprint look like?
As parents navigating the parallel digital universe along with our kids, we know how irresistible it can be sometimes, to comment or post online. And how we can regret it!
Teaching our kids to THINK before they comment in real life, is a life skill that will also help them online. Keep asking them: Is what you just said -
T true?
H helpful?
I inspiring?
N necessary?
K kind?
#beintouch #digitalparenting #bekind #besavvy #think #noregrets #digitalfootprint #digitaltattoo #canttakeitback #lifeskills
#beintouch #
WHO WAS COLLIN? Collin Kartchner, a father of 4, child advocate, social activist and founder of the world-wide movement #SavetheKids, spoke openly to schools and communities across the US and Canada on the dangers of kids using smart phones and social media like Snapchat, TikTok, & Instagram, as well as the negative effects of violent video gaming and pornography. His goal was to help teens rise above social media comparison, negativity, cyber bullying, and the stress of being perfect. He was also adamant that most kids aren’t being exposed to porn for the first time directly from the porn sites, but from apps like TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram.
He called TikTok “the Pied Piper, leading our children off the cliff of their childhoods”, and that TikTok is “the sound of an app stealing your kid’s life away”.
He called Snapchat “a disaster app that glorifies porn, sex, suicide, drugs, and other inappropriate topics,” and declared 1 June 2018 “Delete Snapchat Day”, calling for parents and kids to take a stand together.
Collin’s rallying cry was: “We’re fighting a trillion dollar tech industry with zero accountability and zero incentive to stop throwing kids under their digital bus.”
👇PARENTS - please use this "real age" guide to social media apps to check in with your kids today, and make decisions that are right for YOUR family.
#beintouch #digitalparenting #savethekids #savetheparents #socialmedia #realage #teenmentalhealth
Today, we reflect on the life of this incredibly kind and inspirational man - a warrior for our children and an advocate for protecting their mental health against social media. Collin Kartchner has touched so many young lives, and has left a digital footprint that we MUST keep following.
#savethekids #savetheparents
#beintouch
#collinkartchner
#hug
#socialmedia
#teenmentalhealth
No one makes good decisions when they are tired. And with night time being "prime time" for cyber bullying, it's a no brainer to keep devices out of bedrooms at night.
#screensshouldsleep ... on their very own comfortable, communal, central charging couch!
#beintouch #digitalparenting #licensetoparent #ownit #savethekids #gooddigitalhabits #screennogozone
