no. 39 – The Cell Phone Monitoring Episode

Kids today experience a level of digital connectedness like never before. The question then becomes should parents monitor their kids’ cell phones?

What if every moment of your adolescence could be captured in a snap? What if every thought you had as a teenager could be sent in a few thumb taps? What if as a pre-teen you’d had 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week access to send a message to every single person you did or did not like in school?

With smartphones in hand, kids today are experiencing a level of constant connectedness the world has never known. Unfortunately, many experts say it’s causing never before seen levels of anxiety and depression and blazing an unintended trail of life-altering digital permanence. What’s a parent to do? Is occasional cell phone monitoring too much? Or not enough?

In today’s episode, I’m interviewing Titania Jordan — nationally-recognized social media, tech expert, CPO of The Bark App (affiliate link) and founder of the Facebook group – Parenting Geeks on Call. In this episode we discuss:

• How electronic & social media usage stimulates the same part of the brain as commonly known addictive compounds and why that’s a risk for our children
• The concept of digital permanence and why children need to understand its ramifications at an early age
• Options for parents who don’t want to give their kids a smartphone at an early age
• Why it’s important for parents to be aware of communications on their children’s phone that relate to signs of anxiety, depression, suicide, predatory grooming, etc.
• The reality of “sexting” and how the receiving OR forwarding of related images could be life-changing
• Why a cell phone monitoring option like Bark.us may be a better approach than simply spot checking your child’s phone

I close out today’s show, as the end of Season 1, with a recap of what the This Unmillennial Life Facebook group listed as their most memorable moments from this season of the podcast.

As always, I hope you find this show helpful. If you do, be sure to share it with a friend.

If you have a show idea you’d like to hear about, let me know and submit a show idea here! Or connect with me via Instagram, Tweet Me @ReganJonesRD, leave me a voicemail, email me regan[at]thisunmillenniallife[dot]com or join the This Unmillennial Life Facebook Group.

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Until next time,

~Regan

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