Parenting In The Digital Age By Femi Adekunle on Parenting

Parenting In The Digital Age

By Femi Adekunle on Parenting

A couple of days ago I organized a webinar on Facebook Live (still on parenting), where I got my guests and I to discuss PARENTING ACROSS GENERATIONS – OLD SCHOOL V NEW SCHOOL. I thought I had a good hang until I discovered I was struggling with the right buttons to press to invite my guests, while the audience was waiting. My wife had to come to my rescue.

I have said it often and often, parents must upgrade. Imagine (yes, just imagine it) that your 15-year-old daughter is on her gadget whilst you are sitting by her side. She does not get nervous to hide her conversation from you – because she knows you have no clue – and she continues to chat with her friend. As the curious mum or dad that you are, you snoop on her chat and all you can see are: 8, 9, 143, 420, 1174 etc. I’m sure you will heave a sigh of relief and conclude she is discussing her math lesson with her friend. ‘What a diligent and studious girl’, you must have said to yourself. Unknown to you, she is speaking in codes.

In their thesaurus, 8 stands for ‘oral sex’, 9 for ‘parent is watching’, 143 for ‘I love you’, 420 for ‘marijuana’, 1174 for ‘nude club’, etc etc. The lexicon is ingeniously endless.

As parents, my wife and I always held the opinion that we would not buy smartphones for our kids until they enter the university. But when the Covid-19 lockdown came and schools had to engage them online, we discovered that they had elaborate access to the internet. This made me realise that just as they are so fast to integrate with technology, we must learn to integrate too.

Besides exposure to negative values as a result of uncensored interaction with the internet such as the above, there are so many harmful, destructive effects on our children. Research has shown that over-exposure to digital content leads to physical and social maladies like laziness, obesity and even depression. Juvenile suicide is also traceable in part to this contemporary debility. I will possibly write on tips for dealing with the challenges of digital age parenting, soon.