This Spring newsletter focuses on screen time and online safety. We hope you find these tips and strategies useful. Please feel free to share!

This Parent’s Guide to Raising Digitally Responsible Youth will equip you with the knowledge you need to stay in the loop about the most popular applications and trends. Correspondingly, this guide will give you a better understanding of your child or teen’s internet usage so you can relate to the digital world they live in.

The answer is not just because of safety, or chat filters, or the latest horror story. The answer is structural. Psychological. Economic. Philosophical. It is because Roblox, like so many of its contemporaries, was never built with your child’s best interest in mind. It was built with your child’s attention as the product and their future behaviour as the monetisation model. To read more about Roblox, click on the image.

Parents can help mitigate some of the harm that social media may be doing to young people's mental health.

Looking for a Family Media Agreement? Check out this one from Common Sense Media!

Here is a list of the best screen time management apps.

Recommended for Parents/Caregivers/Grandparents and youth aged 10 and up as a way to facilitate the conversation of safe and caring use of technology at home and in the community. (60 minute session)

This session covers all things digital, from how to be a good digital citizen, the criminal consequences of cyberbullying, and how to report and receive support in cases of sexting/sextortion.

March 4 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm PST

March 13 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm PDT

April 3 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm PDT

Talking to your child about the return to school after Spring Break can help to ease fears or uncertainty. Here are some ways to start the conversation:

• Who are you looking forward to connecting with?
• How are you feeling about the school year?
• What is one thing you feel excited for?
• How can I help you to feel omfortable about school?

Understanding just how much insufficient sleep affects our children is a motivator to help them get the best sleep possible. As kids return to school, resetting sleep habits and rules around tech in the bedroom is hard but imperative. Check out this blog post from Screenagers for more info.

If you need support or have questions, please reach out to us. We can be reached at the school at 604-703-1707 or by email: cathy_preibisch@sd33.bc.ca or marie_amos@sd33.bc.ca