Parent or Warden
This is a parenting confession. One of the more frustrating things about being a parent is navigating that fine line between offering reasonable, open-hearted, and generous advice with my kids versus playing jail warden. Regarding the latter, all of us parents have been there, right?
You wish you could take a bit of time out of the day to calmly explain and provide a persuasive point-of-view to your kids why it’s in their best interest to eat their vegetables. But at the end of the day, the fabulous persuasive position you had planned falls by the wayside, and you end up just screaming at your kids to finish their freaking vegetables!
Of course, in the Digital Age there is a lot more to be concerned with than not getting the daily-recommended servings of veggies. These days us parents have to think about abusing online screen time, lack of exercise, bad digital influences, cyberbullying, and sexting; not to mention the really scary stuff out there like pornographic content, identity theft and online sexual predators. When it comes to the Internet, my instinct to play warden kicks into high-gear. Unfortunately, I find myself losing patience before I have a chance to explain the how’s and why’s of what it means to be a responsible digital citizen to my 2 daughters.
Then I Found a Reliable Parenting Solution
Gone are the days where I peer over my kids’ shoulders, making sure they aren’t on a suspicious website or watching a YouTube clip that is not suitable for children. Or all the other times – when I was distraught, wondering what my kids were exposed to online when I wasn’t in the same room to check-up on their online searches, app downloads, and text chats with who knows who.
With Familoop Safeguard, the monitoring and restrictions are automatically set, based on my kids’ age and can be easily customized to suit his level of maturity. Apps are blocked by age on Apple devices, and by age, name, or category on Android devices used by my children, giving me more control over what games and app content they download. Online websites may also be blocked based on age-appropriate content, and all browsing history is saved to a log I can review anytime. This is crucial, so I can take action at those pivotal moments before it’s too late. Because my daughters use Android devices, I can also monitor calls and text. I understand this feature will be available on iOS soon. Best of all, because my kids’ devices are controlled and monitored from a centralized Familoop parental account, I no longer have to wrestle the phone away from my kid, and instead she is in-training to establish good digital habits.
It’s Easy to Adjust Protection Settings
Familoop offers extensive flexibility. If my kid misbehave, I can easily adjust the settings in my Familoop Safeguard account and initiate tighter restrictions. Likewise, if my kids are particularly good, or have proven that their digital habits are improving, then I can give more digital freedom. I can even turn off monitoring for certain social media sites like Facebook to permit my responsible teen more privacy. Either way, it’s easy and straightforward with a just few buttons in my Familoop Safeguard account to adjust monitoring to suit my family’s needs.
One ongoing argument from the past that my daughters and I have since resolved, thanks to Familoop, is whether they can play apps or Facebook chat with friends before homework was completed. Familoop’s features include the ability to review how my children spend their time online. If my child has returned home from school and spent four hours texting on Facebook instead of completing online research for an assignment, I can easily tell from the screen log that it’s time for a talk. Until my child’s priorities are in order, I can disable the phone manually for “time out” mode.
Everything is Under One Umbrella
Because all of my family’s devices can be monitored via one single Familoop Safeguard account, the days of policing each phone, iPad, and computer are over. Thanks to Familoop’s default settings based on age-appropriate content, my children’ online permissions are set automatically. Making customized tweaks to the default settings is easy, and the modifications are adapted across all of my children’ devices. And on Familoop’s Insight page, I can monitor what my kids are up to – what they search for online, where they are, any new photos they’ve taken on their device before they are shared with others, and who they’re Facebook friends with.
Switch From Warden to Parent
Best of all, parental control software by Familoop provided the opportunity I was looking for to set aside the role playing position I adopted as jail warden in exchange for parent. Familoop’s “contract”, designed with both the child and parent in mind is a digital safety agreement that my children and I discussed and finally agreed to. It was more of a teaching guide, enabling me to share my opinions on safety and why it’s important, communicated to my children in a way I never thought possible. Likewise, I learned more about my children – not only in terms of their digital habits, but in terms of their life. Who their friends are, issues at school, and much more. Heck, I didn’t even realize that my kid’s teacher assigns homework to be completed on a smartphone. Imagine that!
You don’t have to take my word for it.
Familoop is offering a free trial so you can try out the software and see for yourself how your home life can improve. Less battles, less policing, and more parenting, on your terms. And because the folks at Familoop so often implement new updates (social media activity monitoring as well as time restrictions on apps are both in the works), I know that the software will grow as my family’s digital needs grow.
I feel like I’ve been given a great gift – more knowledge, tools, and faith that I can be a great parent and coach for my children as they learn the skills that will prove them well into adulthood. Most of all, I’ve been given the gift to discover who my children are both offline and online.
Contributor: Kate Silmon is a tech-savvy mom of 2 girls and copywriter at Familoop, working hard to parent smartly and passionate about helping other moms do the same. She also posts and carries on communications on behalf of Familoop in social media. Follow Familoop at Twitter and Facebook
