Digital Wellness for Children: How to develop an intentional and healthy relationship with technology

Nikki Bush discusses why we need to be part of our children’s digital safety early on, with Josh Ramsey from Be In Touch, an organisation that’s all about family digital wellness; helping parents to educate, connect and protect children. Josh is a speaker (with a TEDx talk to his name too), educator and coach who watches trends in the digital space and translates them into everyday speak. He speaks from experience having suffered from digital addiction in his teens and 20s. Having completed a degree in psychology, philosophy and coaching, Josh spent his youth traveling the world working as a model, actor, and later as a stuntman. He has seen first-hand the illusion of the entertainment engine and decided to pursue purpose over profit. These experiences combined with being an entrepreneur who has worked in organisational development, training, education, and wellness give him a unique perspective into the emerging field of digital wellness. For more information visit www.beintouch.org

The conversation covers:

• Research statistics from a learner survey about their devices, connectivity and exposure
• The importance of helping school communities to figure out their biggest digital challenges from a list of many
• The world of blackmail, extortion, click-jacking, revenge porn and more that kids are exposed to
• The importance of drawing up an agreement/contract with your child BEFORE you give them their first smartphone
• Accountability, responsibility and consequences in the digital world
• Understanding brain development and the danger gap with devices
• Why kids need ‘fairy wheels’ when they first set out on the digital superhighway
• Why kids should not be sleeping with their phones in terms of their mental health
• How you can gain insight into your child’s digital life
• The case for parental control software as an extra set of senses, pair of eyes or AI sidekick
• Why kids don’t tell you what’s going on in their digital lives
• Why digital safety starts at the beginning of your child’s digital journey – in primary school so that you can avoid a war in high school

“As an adult, your life is defined by contracts: your marriage contract, your insurance contracts, your lease agreement, your mortgage contracts, your employment contracts. So why do we wait until our child is renting a house for the first time as a university student, to introduce them to the idea of a contract?”

Josh Ramsey, Be In Touch

“Children do not have the neocortex, they don’t have the frontal brain development, to make a wise decision especially at night when they’re tired. We also know that sleep is insanely important for growing minds to be able to rest and recuperate after a long day.”

Josh Ramsey, Be In Touch

“Get that device out of their bedroom when they go to sleep at night!”

Josh Ramsey, Be In Touch

“Prioritise their child’s safety over their child’s privacy.”

Josh Ramsey, Be In Touch

“Transparent parental controls and transparent conversations about monitoring your child’s online life are going to be much better than covert spying

Josh Ramsey, Be In Touch

“Stranger content is a massive area of concern for us.”

Josh Ramsey, Be In Touch

“We’re going into this this age of paying for our own AI sidekicks to protect us, whether that’s in our health, whether that’s in our home parental control areas, or our finances. AI is here to stay and we need to have an asset like that on our side when it comes to digital parenting.”

Josh Ramsey, Be In Touch

“Did you know that 80% of the notifications you get don’t come from another human, there’s no human on the other side that wants to connect with you.”

Josh Ramsay, Be In Touch