NICOLLE EMBRA Cyber Safety Expert, The Cyber Safety Tech Mum
C O L U M N
Should you take your teen’s device as punishment? Confiscation of a teen’s device as punishment is a touchy subject I have put off writing about for some time.
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Our teens experience an upbringing entirely different from that of their parents.
We spent time in the streets playing with the It’s been on my topic list, but as a parent of two
neighbourhood children. Our children, on the other
teens, I keep mulling it over and continually reminding
hand, have, at some point, been given a device.
myself that all teens are different and all parents have
This might have happened when they were quite
different parenting beliefs and methods.
small and we needed a moment’s peace in which to produce dinner.
When the subject of consequences came up during a recent presentation about the different ways parents
Internet enabled devices
should get involved in a child’s digital life, I took it as a
are part of our teens’
sign that now is the right time to share what I know.
lives. They game on them. They create videos
In my writing I often make distinctions between two
on them. They read on
age groups: preschool to end of primary school, and
them. They create digital
high school. In this article, I want to make it clear I am
art. They communicate
referring specifically to high school age children.
with others. They shop and they do their banking
I am going to share five points about why I think you need to reconsider removing a teen’s device as a form of punishment.
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Think back to how you socialised when you were
on them.
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At times we parents become frustrated
with our teens’ use
in high school. You met up after school, made
of their devices. We
phone calls, attended sporting events, parties and
have all been there.
weekend get togethers, etc.
We ask our teen to do something and they
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Now consider how teens socialise today. They use
continue to use their
their phones or similar devices. They use social
device. We come back
media platforms, online game chats, etc. My point is
later to see if the job is
that teens today do not socialise as we did, and we
done, only to find them
need to recognise this.
still on their device.
W O M E N I N S E C U R I T Y M A G A Z I N E
S E P T E M B E R • O C T O B E R 2022
