Do you know any younger children who engage in a social network? I'm not just talking Twitter or Facebook here. Have they got a Club Penguin or a Moshi Monsters account? Do they engage in some other forum or chat board, Minecraft perhaps? Or, are they using your iPad to play boardgames online with others that they don't know?
Do you know how these children navigate and use social networks?
Well, we need to know more.
A recent report from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, Kids Online: A new research agenda for understanding social networking forums, has identified that we don't actually know enough about how pre-teens use online social networking. The researchers, Dr. Sarah Grime and Dr. Deborah Fields, have done a good job in helping us recognize that younger children are engaged in a range of different ways with online social networks, but that our knowledge and understanding of what that means and how it impacts on their lives is pretty much underdone. GeekDads, of course, will have thoughts about how and why our children are playing and engaging with technology and networks in the ways they do, but this doesn't give the people who make the rules and set the policy agendas the big picture that they need.
Essentially, Kids Online is a research report that calls for more research into children's use of social networks. But the report does demonstrate very clearly why this is required. And at the rate that technology is changing and advancing, we need to work cleverly if we are to have the type of data and analysis that we need as parents to guide our decision making around technology and our children. We are all out there trying our best to facilitate healthy, dynamic, educational and exciting experiences for our children when it comes to tech, but there are not enough people exploring what that looks like. As the report says:
I'm especially interested in this, as a GeekDad who is very engaged in my 9- and 10-year-olds' digital development. How many of you have, like me, purchased your child their own domain name and set up a blog for them? How many of you support them to engage in forums to work out how to install Minecraft and Portal mods? How many of you support your young children to create their own stop-motion animation videos or tech basic programming or make sure your child knows who Alan Turing is and why the history of computing is important?
Sure - not all that is related to online social networking, but that is because I am taking a different slant here.
The call from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center for a new research agenda into how children engage with social networks could be paralleled by a question of how do parents, who are supporting their children to be confident and capable digital citizens, share their knowledge and skills with others? If there is a mission for GeekDad it is to help share our ideas and thoughts and build a community of parents who do just that, but how do we take it a step further?
Maybe we assume all parents know how to engage with their children around technology, maybe we don't give it much thought, but how many kids miss out on basic technology skills and knowledge because their parents are not encouraged to engage? Could GeekDad readers be sharing not just projects, but our approach? How do you talk to children about technology, how do you show them things and learn together about Arduinos or just using a word processing program for homework?
There is a growing role for GeekDads and GeekMoms to play a role supporting other parents in the spaces we know best. Our kids benefit from it - and more kids should. So, GeekDad Makers open up your sheds to the local kids. GeekMom programmers, go and run a course at your local school for other moms and dads. GeekDad Gamers hold a regular LAN party and get some of those sporting kids in front of computers and into virtual worlds. Share what you know and do, it is important.
And, when the researchers come asking about children and parenting and social networks, answer their questions - we will all benefit.
