Summer vacation means more free time for students. FCPS wants to help you support your child this summer when they engage in the online world.  If their device is internet-enabled, please consider the following tips and resources:

Educate yourself and your children.

Digital citizenship is learning process and your child will need sustained support from parents and teachers. Visit bit.ly/fairfaxdigcit for a fun and interactive parent-child course that can help your family start conversations about navigating the online world.

Establish rules and expectations.

Have you thought about the rules you want to establish with your child for setting up accounts and the privacy settings you expect your child to use?  What are your expectations and how will you monitor and mediate your child’s online activities? Not sure where to start? Try these tip sheets, media agreements, and device contracts (translations are located on the FCPS 24-7 Parent View tab).

Enjoy Screens.  Not too much. Mostly Together.

Parents should help kids balance screen time. But parents also play a role in sharing the joy of screens with their kids. Parents can model the use of technology for creation, discovery and connection. Parents can help kids understand and interpret the media the use, when we experience it with them.

Help your child monitor and manage their screen time.

It’s easy to spend hours on a device, especially when it's new.  Use these guidelines and strategies to help your children learn how to monitor and manage their screen time so they will have the ability to find balance when you’re not around.  In the end, remember you are the parent and you make the rules.

Discuss privacy settings and accounts.

Teach your child to protect their personal information and model the use of privacy settings.  Discuss why these settings are important and teach them how to make privacy setting choices for every app and service they use.  This resource can help you get started.  

Give your child action steps.

Discuss potential situations that may arise before they happen and give your child action steps. Do they know what to they can do if cyber bullied, harassed, or if someone sends them something they don’t want to see? Every difficult situation is an opportunity to help prepare them for life beyond your home. These short parent advice videos, which can be filtered by topic and age, can help you identify action steps you can share with your child.  

Teach your child to assess risks and make good choices.

Online communication is public and permanent. Talk with your children regularly and remind them that what they do online can impact future opportunities. Their online reputation can also affect their relationships in the face to face world.