Digital literacy for parents of the 21st century children
Parenting in the digital age is posing some new challenges to parents wishing to support their children’s development and well-being.
From choosing digital games to deciding how many hours a day their offspring should be allowed to watch screens, parents have to take decisions and set policies on digital use. Yet such parental choices and decisions are based on scant knowledge of the benefits, opportunities and risks of using technology for K-12. Although our little ones are supposed to be born ‘digital natives’, the relationship between K-12 children to digital technologies is mainly mediated by their parents, care-givers and (pre)school.
Everyone taking care of today’s children should shoulder responsibility for deciding which technologies we allow them to use, the type of activities, apps and uses we authorize or promote and how much on-screen time we allow for these activities. This paper aims to provide a framework for the digital literacy of parents based on four sets of skills: (1) privacy, content and technology management; (2) communication and socio-emotional skills: (3) creative and problemsolving skills; (4) life-long learning to keep abreast of digital literacy skills.