Right now, there are so many different awesome streaming services to choose from, it can sometimes feel overwhelming! Many families may even have a couple of different subscriptions. But the most popular by far is the O.G. player in the game, Netflix. Fortunately, the company spends a ton of time and money creating and licensing content for viewers of all ages. So, the next time you and the kids are looking for great family movies on Netflix, look no further! We’ve compiled some of our favorites, from Netflix originals to classic throwbacks.

Family Movies on Netflix Perfect for Younger Kids

We Can Be Heroes

If your kids love Marvel movies, this Netflix original asks the question: What if young superheroes had to save the day? We Can Be Heroes is actually a spin-off from The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D, which came out 15 years ago. When alien invaders manage to kidnap their parents, these kids with incredible abilities rally to fight off the bad guys and rescue their families. Fun fact: It features Pedro Pascal, who plays the Mandalorian — a.k.a Baby Yoda’s dad!

Stuart Little

Based on the beloved E.B. White children’s book (the author of fellow kid classic Charlotte’s Web), Stuart Little is a delightful film about the power of family. When the Littles bring home their newest family member, everyone is shocked to discover it’s a mouse named Stuart! Filled with laughs and a star-studded cast including Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie, and Michael J. Fox, kids will fall in love with the adorable Stuart and his adventures.

Vivo

Have you ever heard of a “kinkajou”? It’s kind of like a raccoon, and his name is Vivo in this delightful, colorful animated movie. Voiced by Hamilton creator Lin Manuel Miranda, Vivo undertakes a journey from Cuba to Miami to deliver a song to an old friend. The magnificent musical numbers truly stand out in this movie — Gloria Estefan even voices one of the characters — and your entire family will be dancing and singing along to them in the living room. 

YES DAY

The premise behind this movie is most likely every child’s dream: an entire day where — no matter what a kid asks — the parents have to say yes. Jennifer Garner stars in the hilarious romp through a no-holds-barred day of fun, food, and festivities. But is too much of a good thing … too much? You’ll have to watch to find out!

Hotel for Dogs

If your family loves canine companions, Hotel for Dogs is going to be a surefire hit! Andi and Bruce aren’t allowed to keep their beloved dog at their foster parents’ house, so they decide to take matters into their own hands. An abandoned hotel becomes the perfect place to hide him — along with many other strays that need a warm bed and a hot meal. Not long after, they get their paws full of all kinds of furry adventures.

Hugo

This family movie was directed by Martin Scorsese and nominated for a ton of Academy Awards in 2012. Set in the 1930s, Hugo tells the story of a lonely boy who lives with his father in a Paris train station and gets pulled into a fascinating mystery. Kids with an interest in history, technology, and old-timey movies and costumes will especially love this touching film. 

Mr. Peabody & Sherman

Classic cartoons are all the rage right now, and Mr. Peabody & Sherman is a great movie for parents and kids of all ages. The wise Mr. Peabody — who’s a very educated dog —  is raising his adopted 7-year-old human son, Sherman. Together, they travel through time to learn about history, humanity, and more — and all kinds of shenanigans ensue.

Tween and Teen Netflix Favorites

Enola Holmes

Millie Bobby Brown — you may know her as Eleven in Netflix’s Stranger Things — stars in this historical adventure as Enola Holmes, the younger sister of famed detective Sherlock Holmes. This fast-paced film is perfect for older kids who love history (especially Victorian England) and strong female protagonists. 

My Octopus Teacher

My Octopus Teacher won an Oscar for best documentary in 2021, and it’s not hard to see why. Filmmaker Craig Foster chronicles his friendship with an octopus who lives in the kelp forest near his house off the coast of South Africa. He learns where she lives, where she plays, and where she hunts, all the while learning even more about his connection to nature and place in the world. 

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

This 1986 John Huges classic has become the gold standard in playing-hooky movies for multiple generations! Charismatic high schooler Ferris and his best friends experience the sick day of a lifetime as they head into the big city to take in a Chicago Cubs game, visit museums, go swimming, and more — all while dodging their school principal who’s on to their tricks.

Good Burger

Looking for a ’90s throwback movie to watch? This goofy comedy will definitely fit the bill! Originally a sketch on the Nickelodeon show All That, Good Burger is about two bumbling employees who work at a local fast food joint and get into all kinds of hijinks. The best part? All of the awesome cameos — keep your eyes peeled for Shaq, George Clinton, Sinbad, and Carmen Electra. 

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Based on a true story, this 2019 movie tells the story of William Kamkwamba, a young boy from Malawi that sets out to save his village from famine. A whiz at science, he teaches himself how to build a piece of technology that could change everything. But can he do it in time?

Finding Ohana

If your kids are missing the fun and sun of summer break, consider a cinematic trip to the island of O’ahu in Finding Ohana. This adventure tale features two siblings from Brooklyn who are on vacation in Hawaii when something incredible happens. As they search for long-lost treasure, they bond with their family and discover their Hawaiian heritage, making it truly a vacation to remember.

The Last Airbender

This is a live-action movie version of the wildly popular show Avatar: The Last Airbender. Directed by M. Night Shymalan, it was a worldwide hit with families all over the world in 2010. The film tells the tale of Aang, a powerful young boy who holds the key to restoring peace to a world ravaged by the Fire Nation’s aggression. Family movies on Netflix don’t get much better than this!

Traditional bullying vs. cyberbullying — you probably think they’re fairly similar, but for today’s kids, the difference is like night and day. The emotional and confrontational core may be the same, but cyberbullying plays out in intense ways our generation couldn’t have imagined. In this post, we’re going to take a deep dive into current examples of cyberbullying and explain how they’re more serious than you might think.

Time and Location Don’t Matter Anymore

In days of bullying past, anxiety often centered around running into bullies at school, on the playground, or at the mall. While these locales may have been unavoidable at times, there was at least some reprieve when you got home.

Today, the entirety of cyberbullying happens online. It can happen at any time of day and at any place you can bring a phone: on the bus, at the dinner table, and even at your church. Kids can also hear the ping of a nasty message while sitting next to you on the couch. Home is no longer a safe space, as late into the night kids can be hunched under the covers, trying desperately to make sense of the vitriol being posted online about them.

More Avenues for Harassment

There are countless ways children torment each other online, and each has its own peculiar M.O. There are active ways — things like aggressive and taunting texts, emails, chats, and comments. And then there are passive ways — posting a mean photo or a screenshot on Snapchat, for instance, that can be seen by hundreds of other kids in a matter of minutes.

Though the traditional advice is to block or defriend a cyberbully, cyberbullies can simply switch to another platform or create a new account to continue the harassment, like a social media hydra. This inescapability is what can make cyberbullying so dangerous — and hard to fight.

Also prevalent is an activity known as “siccing,” where one bully recruits friends to gang up on a victim and launch a joint attack on their social media account. In these situations, the onslaught can be terrifying and near-impossible to ignore.

Burn Books Have Become Ebooks

Burn books used to be destructive forms of social currency, and they were a perfect example of the incredible powers of groupthink in bullying. They’d be passed around and shared, and page after page would be filled with mean, hurtful statements about people.

Today, there’s no need for a physical book that could be left behind or confiscated. They exist online in Google Docs and in files. They can be password protected and shared peer-to-peer instantly.

Today’s burn books may also take the shape of private, invite-only group chats and messages, portions of which can be leaked out via screenshots and shared online.

Anonymity Enables Teasing Without Confrontation

It was always possible for rumors to spread anonymously — think rude messages scrawled on bathroom walls, lies whispered ear-to-ear through the hallways — but with the internet, anonymity has become part and parcel of cyberbullying.

Especially popular right now are anonymous messaging apps making the rounds at schools. Kids can log in and leave hurtful comments anonymously, unattached to their real names, email addresses, or phone numbers. Knowing that no one can trace these profiles back to them, cyberbullies are emboldened to attack their victims even more cruelly.

Many kids also follow “tea accounts” — tea being a common slang term for gossip. There are mainstream tea accounts run by popular influencers, but it’s also easy for kids to create their own and “spill the tea” about students in their school. These accounts can be accusatory, inflammatory, and even harassing.

It’s Easier Than Ever to Impersonate Someone

The closest analog for this type of cyberbullying in the past was impersonating someone on the phone — but even that doesn’t really come close to what’s happening now. These days, kids can quickly and easily create brand-new Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and other social media profiles pretending to be another child with pictures and personal information, both of which are readily available online.

They then post embarrassing, scandalous, or even illegal content to try and get the victim in trouble. Not only does it affect the victim’s sense of worth, but it’s often made public for the entire school community to see, as well, adding humiliation to the sense of invasiveness. 

So, traditional bullying vs. cyberbullying: those are the basics of what you need to know. Technology has changed many aspects of our lives, but the way it’s changed bullying is more hurtful than ever before. Talk to your kids about cyberbullying often and make sure they know you’re always there to listen and help if they need it. 

iOS 15 has officially been announced! Apple released their preview of all the new changes a few days ago, and today is confirming exactly what will be rolling out in the new update, which will become available tomorrow. We will keep this blog post updated with any new developments.

The changes are numerous and we know you’re busy figuring out homework and how to convince your kid that screen-free time is actually fun and about a million other things, so we rounded up the most notable changes. Feel free to read all the way through or just navigate directly to the worrisome stuff.

The Bad

The Good

The Neutral

iOS 15: The Bad

Public FaceTime links

If your kid wants to hop onto a quick call with a few of their buddies (who also have Apple devices), they can simply select their contacts and be chatting in no time. With the new update, your child will have the option to share their FaceTime call link anywhere. Then, all someone has to do to join the call is tap on that link — regardless of whether they have Apple devices or whether they know your child.

Automatically saved photos

Now, if your kid receives a photo over iMessage, they have to go through a few steps if they want to save it to their photo library. With iOS 15, any images your child receives will be automatically saved to their library. That means nude images, offensive memes, and more. It does not appear that this is a feature that can be turned off, but we will be sure to update this blog post if that is an option.

Lock Screen access

iOS 15 will now come with the option to search for links, images, and more directly from the lock screen! That means if your kid is not supposed to have access to their phone, they will still be able to see certain results — even without the ability to unlock their device. It is currently unclear whether lock screen searches will fall under screen time rules. 

Health trends

With the new iOS update comes even more data about your health. The Health app will now show you whether different metrics are increasing or decreasing. While this may initially sound like a harmless change, it can have a negative effect on your child. Kids today face huge amounts of pressure to maintain a certain body shape, track their calories, and more. 

Analysis of whether they’re doing “better” or “worse” in these areas can exacerbate unhealthy habits and mindsets. If you’re concerned about this, make sure your child turns off the new option to receive alerts when emerging trends are detected.

iOS 15: The Good

Focus

The new Focus tool allows users to set personalized Do Not Disturb settings. You will be able to turn all notifications off or choose from Apple’s pre-designed suggestions for “work, personal time, sleep, fitness, gaming, reading, or driving.” This could be pretty useful if your child is someone who gets easily distracted when their phone lights up.

 Customizable notification settings

Of course, you still want to be able to reach your kid when you need to — even if they have Do Not Disturb toggled on. iOS 15 will allow you to pre-approve notifications from specific contacts, so make sure your child elects to receive your messages.

Daily summaries

“Receive a helpful summary of your notifications delivered daily, in the morning and evening, or scheduled at a time you choose,” Apple’s preview article says. “Your summary is personalized and helps you quickly catch up on what you missed while away focusing.” 

For kids (or, let’s be honest, parents) who have a tough time making sure important information doesn’t slip through the cracks, this new feature could be really helpful.

More private email settings

Email scams are becoming increasingly common, and scammers’ schemes are more sophisticated than ever. iOS 15’s new Mail Privacy Protection restricts email senders from having access to information about how you use your Mail app. You can also choose to hide your IP address. “Senders can’t link it to your other online activity or determine your location,” Apple explains. “And it prevents senders from seeing if you’ve opened their email.”

iOS 15: The Neutral

Interactive text in images

With iOS 15, you will now be able to take a photo of something and then copy, look up, or translate any text that appears in the image. That means your kid can quickly transform handwritten notes into a Google Doc or insert a quote from a PDF into their history paper.

Photos search

The Photos app analyzes the contents of your photos more than ever. You can now search for not only people or locations, but also for things that may appear in an image. For example, you could search for a photo in your library containing a bird. By typing in a contact name, you can also search based on who sent you an image.

More information

To learn about every single change that’s coming, you can read Apple’s announcement article. Just make sure you’re fully caffeinated before diving in — it’s a long one.

There’s a lot of entertainment out there competing for a kid’s attention these days — from Instagram and Dungeons & Dragons to TikTok and anime. But nothing beats a good old-fashioned book, whether it’s a dog-eared paperback or an e-book instantly downloaded to a Kindle. We probably don’t have to tell you reading has so many amazing benefits, including better performance at school, a more diverse vocabulary, and even an increased ability to empathize with others. We’ve compiled a list of some great books for teens and tweens that you can share with your child. You may even want to join in on the fun yourself! Family book club, anyone?

Note: While these books are generally age-appropriate for kiddos 10 and up, you know your own child and your family’s values best, so we included links to help you look into each pick!

Fiction Books for Teens and Tweens

Inheritance Games

Barnes & Noble, $9.99

When a billionaire passes away and leaves Avery Grambs his entire fortune, she thinks it’s too good to be true — and she may be right! To get the inheritance, she must move into his creepy, sprawling mansion and solve a series of puzzles while outwitting his sons (who are also trying to win their inheritance back). Think of it kind of like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory meets The Hunger Games. If your child loves escape rooms or action-packed romps like The Maze Runner, this book is a definite must-read.

Girl in the Blue Coat

Amazon, $8.41 

Girl in the Blue Coat is a riveting historical fiction novel set in Amsterdam during World War II. Young Hanneke helps support her family by scouring the city for impossible-to-find goods like gasoline and chocolate. Her life changes one day when she is asked to find her most dangerous cargo yet — a missing Jewish teenager her friend has been hiding from the Nazis.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Target, $9.54

This New York Times bestseller mixes fiction and photography in a way that’s absolutely absorbing. Young orphan Jacob, finding himself on a gothic, far-away island, discovers that he possesses supernatural powers. Under the tutelage of the mysterious Miss Peregrine, he makes friends with other kids who are equally talented, if a bit misunderstood. If your kid is a fan of books like the Harry Potter series or movies like X-Men: First Class, they’ll enjoy this fantasy-filled, time-traveling novel.

The House on Mango Street

Amazon, $7.28

Originally published in 1991, Sandra Cisneros’s coming-of-age novel set in Chicago has been touching the hearts of readers for generations. Esperanza, a Latina teen struggling to find a place for herself in a very large world, tells her story in a series of short vignettes. Ranging from hilarious to heartbreaking to profound, her story will inspire young people no matter when or where they live — because growing up isn’t ever easy!

Non-Fiction Books 

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

Amazon, $14.86

If your teen is the type of kid who asked you a million random questions when they were younger, we have the perfect book. What If? provides research-backed answers to hilarious questions like “How many humans would a T. rex rampaging through New York need to eat a day?” or “How fast can you drive and hit a speed bump and live?” Written by the acclaimed author of webcomic xkcd, this wildly entertaining book will educate and entertain even the pickiest reader.

Mindfulness for Teens in 10 Minutes a Day: Exercises to Feel Calm, Stay Focused & Be Your Best Self

Amazon, $12.89

Growing up is never a walk in the park, but the past few years have been extra stressful for kids and adults alike. This workbook provides a wide variety of fun and engaging activities to help teens relax, decompress, and chill out. From coloring pages to breathing exercises, there’s bound to be something that will help your child unplug from the stress of soccer practice, science homework, and everything in between.

How to Survive Anything: Shark Attack, Lightning, Embarrassing Parents, Pop Quizzes, and Other Perilous Situations

Amazon, $8.79

National Geographic has put together the ultimate survival guide for young people. Whether it’s drama in the lunchroom or an exploding volcano deep in the jungle, your kid will learn everything they need to know about stressful situations. It’s edgy, super entertaining, and laugh-out-loud hilarious. Children won’t even realize they’re learning a lot of science from one of the most respected scientific publications in the world.  

Memoir

Chasing Space: An Astronaut’s Story of Grit, Grace, and Second Chances

Amazon, $12.24 

When it comes to inspiring tales, they don’t get much better than Leland Melvin’s jaw-dropping story. A former professional football player turned NASA scientist and astronaut, Melvin has persevered to reach new heights of adventure and success. Also, he’s the only person in human history to catch a pass in the NFL and also in space. Talk about a double threat!

Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek: A Memoir

Amazon, $13.96

Real-life eighth-grader Maya Van Wagenen, struggling to deal with “school…the armpit of life,” wrote this hilarious and touching memoir in 2014. In it, she details how she decided to follow the advice of a 1950s popularity guide to see if it could help her in the 21st century. The results are a little surprising and will certainly appeal to kids dealing with “mean girls” at their school.

Graphic Novels

Be More Chill: The Graphic Novel

Amazon, $13.48

Remember in Family Matters when nerd Steve Urkel used an invention to turn himself into the ultra suave Stefan Urquelle? Be More Chill follows the same idea! One of the most interesting books for teens we’ve come across lately, this graphic novel is visually stunning and a ton of fun. Local nerd Jeremy learns about a pill-sized mini-computer called “the squip” that you swallow. This tiny device teaches you what to say, what to wear, and how to act. Sounds too good to be true right? Turns out the squip may have a dark side…

Remember your very first email account? Odds are, you probably used AOL, Hotmail, or Yahoo. Maybe you even had one of those free accounts that came with your family’s internet provider. Today, one of the best and safest ways for a kid to dive into the world of email is with Gmail. Whether this will be your kid’s very first email address or you’re looking for ways to help protect their existing account, Gmail for kids can be a great option. We’ll break down everything you need to know about this platform that has more than 1 billion users all across the world. 

What Does a Gmail Account Include?

When you create a Gmail account, you’re also creating a general Google login. This gives you free access to everything in Google Workspace (formerly known as G Suite), including collaborative apps like Google Docs, Google Sheets, and more. With Google Drive, you can easily store and share files, photos, and videos. Because Youtube is owned by Google, a YouTube account will also be created using the same username and password. Within the Gmail dashboard itself, you’ll find three ways to communicate instantly. Chat, which is text-based, Meet, which is a video chat platform like Zoom, and Rooms, which is a project management tool.  

Setting Up Gmail for Kids Under 13

Google accounts for children under 13 have to be created with an app called Google Family Link. Family Link allows you to supervise your kid’s Google account, view your child’s smartphone activity, manage their apps, set screen time limits, and even track their location.

How to create a Google Account for children under 13

1. Download the Family Link app.
2. Open the Family Link app.
3. In the top right, tap Create or +.
4. Follow the instructions on screen to create your child’s account.
5. When you’re done, a confirmation will show on the screen.

How Gmail accounts are different for kids under 13

For the most part, Gmail will be the same for children as it is for adults. There are only a few Gmail features that aren’t available to children under 13.

• Ads: Google won’t serve your child ads.
• Automatic forwarding: Kids won’t be able to automatically forward their emails to another email address.
• Gmail offline: Children can’t read, send, or search their Gmail emails if their device isn’t connected to the internet, 
• Labs: Children won’t be able to use Gmail’s experimental features.
• Mail delegation: Children don’t have the ability to give someone else access to send, delete, or read their emails.
• Spam: Emails that Google deems spam won’t get be delivered.

Note: Once your child turns 13, they’ll be able to remove any parental controls that are in place. 

Helpful Safety Tips for Teenagers With Gmail

While you can’t automatically manage your kid’s account once they become a teenager without their permission, you can help keep them safe with Google’s in-app controls. (If your teen doesn’t have a Gmail account already, just head to Gmail.com and create a new, standard Google account.)

How to block an email address from contacting your child

1. Open an email from the person you want to block.
2. In the top right of the message, click “…”.
3. Then, click Block [sender].
4. If you blocked someone by mistake, you can unblock them using these same steps.

How to create filters

The filter setting limits who can contact your child via email. If you’d like to add more people to the filter, you can do so from the accounts settings.

1. From your child’s Gmail account, click on the gear icon in the top right corner.
2. Click Settings.
3. Click on the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab.
4. Click Create a New Filter and follow the prompts to create a custom filter.
5. Next, select “Delete it” so that filtered emails don’t get sent to your child’s spam folder, where it could be seen.

Potential Dangers to Watch Out For

Email accounts may seem relatively harmless, but there’s more to worry about than you may think. Here are a few of the dangers email presents, as well as how to help prepare your kid to deal with them. 

Communication with strangers

This is probably the biggest concern for families, as a Gmail account allows kids to email, chat, and video chat with other people. This is especially true for kids who play games online and may chat with others. Oftentimes, they may want to move the conversation to another platform. Consider making a strict “no email or chat messaging with people you don’t know in real life” rule.

Phishing/scams

Gmail can be pretty good about filtering out phishing emails, but some may still slip through. Talk to your kids about these types of messages, and how they’re meant to trick people into providing personal information like social security numbers, birthdates, and credit card numbers. Show them an example of one on your own account, if possible. Then explain that they try to lure people with free offers. Once you click through, these messages often hide viruses and other bad things that can affect your computer. 

Security

Make sure your child’s password is super secure, with a mixture of capital letters, numbers, and special characters. For even greater protection, turn on two-factor authentication. This can help keep hackers from accessing their account.

Privacy

When helping your child create their username, make sure they don’t accidentally include any potentially identifying information. This can include things like their school mascot, the year they were born, or their whole name. Keeping your child’s user name non-personal will help prevent strangers from learning key details about them. 

• Bad example: JoshuaB2012
• Good example: Fortnitefan5738

How Bark Can Help

To help make Gmail for kids safer, Bark monitors your child’s sent and received emails, attachments, and chats. You’ll receive alerts if Bark detects potential issues like bullying, depression, suicidal ideation, online predators, and more.

1. Make sure you’ve created a Bark account (either during your free trial or as a subscriber).
2. Visit your dashboard.
3. Select the “…” menu and click Add device or app.
4. Choose Content monitoring.
5. Scroll down until you see the email section and select Gmail.
6. From this screen, you can choose to enter in your child’s username and password, or they can do it themselves.
7. You’re all set! Bark will immediately begin monitoring their account.

Between Snapchat discussions, screen time debates, and the latest tech devices that enter your house, you’ve probably caught yourself wondering if raising kids has always been this challenging. The short answer is no! Some of the issues we’re facing today simply didn’t exist for our parents and grandparents. But that’s okay — it just means that the parenting skills needed to help bring up happy and healthy kids have changed, too. In this post, we’ll explain what they are so you can put your experience into perspective. You’ve most likely already got a lot of these important skills and don’t even realize it!

6 Essential Parenting Skills for the Digital Age

Take Time to Learn About New Technology As It Comes Out 

Technology is always changing, but for older generations, the stakes weren’t quite as high. Parents could afford to not pay as close attention to how the original 8-bit Nintendo worked or why Tamagotchis were so popular. That’s because these popular gadgets were just toys. Today, however, so much of our new technology comes with the ability to communicate with others — and that means danger. New games have chat features, phones come with built-in apps, and even living room staples like TVs can access the internet. For modern parents, it’s important to research the new technology your kids bring home so you can help keep them safe while they use it.

Acknowledge the Power and Influence of Social Media 

No matter what your family’s values are concerning social media, understanding why and how it’s so popular can help you relate to your child and many of the issues they deal with as they grow up. And whether or not you choose to grant access to apps like Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok, your kids are still going to be affected by them. Having social media can create dangers for kids like cyberbullying, exposure to sexual content, and online predation. But not having social media can also cause issues like being left out at school, in-person bullying, and teasing. It’s up to you to weigh the effects of both sides, but social media will continue to dominate the cultural landscape for young people. As your kids grow up, your parenting skills in this area may have to evolve.

Prepare Your Kids For How to Deal With the Constant Influx of Information

When we were growing up, “the news” was something you read in the morning paper or watched on TV. Magazines and conversations could add to our knowledge, but that was about it. Unless you went out of your way to read or watch the news, you could remain blissfully unaware of most current events. Today, it’s exactly the opposite. News is everywhere 24/7 and it’s instant. It never stops, and even when you’re not looking for headlines, you’re bombarded with them. Unfortunately, it doesn’t distinguish between kids and adults. Young people may not know how to deal with things like misinformation, or the stress and anxiety caused by hearing about tragic world events. Talk to them about current events and the things they learn online. Be sure to stress the importance of self-care when they feel overwhelmed and overstimulated.

Recognize That the Digital World Can’t Be Separated From the Real World

For older generations, there’s a huge distinction between “we chatted online” and “we chatted over coffee.” This is because, for many years, the experience of using the internet revolved around the idea of “logging on” — a concept completely foreign to Gen Z. Today, thanks to 5G internet and smartphones, you’re always online. When your kids say they hung out with their friends, that could mean on Twitch, Zoom, or Discord. Or it could just as easily mean they’re at the park. Technology and social media are completely embedded into everyday life, and they aren’t something that can be turned off anymore. One way this seriously affects kids is cyberbullying. Unlike in the past, it can follow kids home and happen at any time of day. This can make it feel a lot more distressing! Keep this in mind when your kids get upset about something that happens “online” — it’s so much more than that to them. It’s their whole world.

Understand the Issues Previous Generations Didn’t Have to Deal With 

There are some scary things kids have always faced: things like skinned knees, back-to-school jitters, and bad dreams. But some of the issues facing young people today couldn’t have been imagined 50 years ago. This includes dangers that the internet has brought to life, like cyberbullying, catfishing, and online grooming. It also includes issues that were once thought to be so infrequent as to be almost impossible, like child suicide. Today, suicide is now the second-leading cause of death for young people. Because all of these dangers are relatively new, it’s crucial to talk to your kids and have open and honest conversations about them together.

Teach Your Kid About Their Digital Footprint 

Instilling good manners can be a big part of raising kids. From saying “please” and “thank you” to knowing which clothes to wear to church, children learn from their families how to act in public. Kids today are taught these same rules, but just as important is digital etiquette. Because so many of our interactions happen online, it’s necessary that children learn what’s proper there. Introducing the concept of digital citizenship to your family means explaining that their actions online can reach a lot of people. Their digital footprint can even last for years to come!

How Bark Can Help

Because so much has changed for families in the past decades or so, keeping up with technology can be extra challenging. One of the best tools to add to your parenting skills toolbox is Bark! Our award-winning service monitors your kid’s texts, emails, and 30+ apps and social media platforms for signs of digital dangers. We also have a powerful web filter and screen time management tools to help protect them from inappropriate content.