Parents of teenagers would be able to relate to the scene in which their adolescent ward is staring into their homework, with their thoughts lightyears away. Occasional funk is nothing to be worried about – after all which of us does not need an occasional external motivator to get out of ennui? A t
Many parents do not allow their kids below 13 on social media (and rightly so) but cannot exclude all forms of communication. Emails are a good option here, because there is control on who can communicate with the kid, and emails could actually help the child develop communication skills, like writ
I remember a time in my life that as I closed my eyes to sleep, my brain reverberated with nursery rhymes, the alphabet song, and because I am a nerd and decided to teach my in-house kindergarten kid the periodic table song (yes, I see a psychologist couch in my child’s future), that one. When I was
With the ongoing pandemic and associated protective restrictions on socialization, online tools are being increasingly sought for communication. While older children may resort to mainstream social media to stay in touch with friends and family, this is impractical and probably unsafe for younger ch
Teenspeak in the digital era“WTH*” says my teen, as I pour water over her sleepy head. “KMN*”, she groans, when I remind her that online school starts in about thirty-six seconds, and says, “TSNF*”. *What-The-He##, Kill-Me-Now, That’s-So-Not-FairLiving with a teenager teaches me that this breed of
Children watching pornWhile the age of digital information is here to stay, and indeed benefits humanity in many ways, its risks to kids and adolescents cannot be stressed enough. One such risk is exposure of kids to age-inappropriate content such as pornography – the elephant in the room that must
Why is cyberbullying a serious problem?It is well-established, both objectively and from experience, that the effects of cyberbullying are serious and cannot be ignored. The effects of cyberbullying range from social withdrawal to suicides and are exacerbated by the boundaryless nature of the Intern
Screen Time is one tool that a majority of parents use today on iPhones and iPads. Right from monitoring iOS devices to tracking all the apps and the amount of time spent on them, Screen Time gives parents a report on what their kids have been up to and whether there’s any intervention required. But
The Roman poet Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis (“Juvenal” in English) lived in the 2nd century AD. In his book of satirical poems, he wrote: Rarus enim ferme sensus communis - “common sense is generally rare”. Twenty centuries later, after we’ve sent man to the moon and connected the world in zettabytes o
Yubo, previously known as Yellow, is extremely popular among teens. A number of controversies erupted as soon as it started getting a large number of tween and teen users. It mimics adult social media & dating apps like Tinder and has been called out for being a dating app for teens. Parents, teache
Do you fancy talking to strangers? Do you like to socialize with people who are completely unknown to you, probably from the other side of the world? There’s a possibility that you are saying yes; why not right? But would you be okay with your twelve year old chatting with a complete stranger? Needl
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. No event in the near past has called for more extraordinary measures, than the enigmatic Covid-19 virus that has, apart from shattering lives and livelihoods, torn the fabric of normalcy in every walk of life.The difference between the current si
