Digital rules for parents

Here’s an interesting piece — entitled “It’s 10 pm online, do you know where your parents are?” — that looks at some of the most recent research about how parents navigate digital worlds with their kids. (Including a brief reference to a brand new book MIT Press has just published, Hangin’ out, Messing around and Geeking out). Heidi Horst is quoted: <blockquote><p>Get Used to Not Being the Expert — In some ways, when the child is better with digital media than their parents, it destabilizes the “parent as absolute authority” dynamic. Children take on roles as experts in particular areas, like being the one who finds and records everyone’s favorite television shows.

Ultimately, Horst says, parents can fill an important role in their child’s digital life by doing many of the types of things parents often do. They can let go of the idea that they will always be the expert in the same way they do with teachers, coaches and other important adults.

“They can [develop] an awareness and sensitivity to the role that new media plays in their kids lives,” Horst says. “They can be supportive, without being in the middle of it all the time.”</blockquote>