Sunday, January 19, 2014

Keeping up with our kids

I have come to realise recently that parenting is becoming more difficult. Sure it was hard when my oldest was young, I was new to ASD, and Autism parenting is hard. However, this is a whole new and different hard! Last night I heard Lachie talking in his room and snuck up the stairs. I was shocked to hear someone, a voice I didn't recognise, a man's voice talking back to him. At first I started to panic, thinking there was someone in his room, then it clicked, to my horror he was conversing with a stranger through the game centre chat facility on his Ipad. I got nothing but meltdown and fire as I ended the conversation. I took the iPad and discovered my sweet, innocent 7 year old had 474 "friends". I thought I was tech savvy. I thought I was safety conscious. I had seen the restrictions and assumed he was restricted and safe. I had not set the restrictions with a password. After extensive questioning, I only got that he said nice stuff and this strange man said nice stuff back. I just hope it is a true 7 year old interpretation of nice.  Despite the restrictions I also had to sign out of Game Centre as it continues to allow them to interact with "friends" they have already added. So this post is a pouring out of mummy guilt and a warning to double check all your children's devices, google if you need to, but stay informed about the dangers.