The Safe Tech Family

Ever heard of an undercover substitute teacher? Carolynn Williams left her corporate HR job after interviewing young candidates for positions and seeing a pattern of them throwing up during their interviews. She became curious as to what was causing this behavior in young people, so she substituted 11 different subjects to ask students questions about living in a hypertech world. Their views on boredom, failure, connecting with others, and more are fascinating and will have you wanting to share this episode with your friends!
Carolynn Williams: Youth Keynote Speaker on Creating Confidence, Connection, and Resiliency
carolynnwilliams.com

It’s important for all of us to know that we’re not the only ones carrying some really heavy burdens regarding tech’s influence on our kids. Personal stories can benefit so many others when we share them! Matt Bunker shares how his son's gaming addiction affected his family and marriage and how they used it to bring them closer together.
What happened with Jack 1:00
Getting too into Instagram and spending a lot of time alone 8:28
Grades began to fail 12:50
Things weren’t like they seemed 17:00
Suicide attempt 20:36
Comparison and needing external validation 25:26
Advice and what Matt would do differently looking back 32:33
Don’t feel shame 44:33
Create a baseline with your spouse 47:05
“We weren’t able to do everything we wanted to, but what we were able to do is learn a ton of things, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity I had to learn about screen time. The dangers of too much recreational screen time, the dangers of different types of platforms, and the addictive nature of a lot of these platforms.” 14:46

Effectively protecting kids online starts with awareness of topics we, as parents, don't want to believe could ever happen to our kids. This is one of those episodes. Believe it or not, children really are being sex-trafficked in our communities — and it almost always starts with online messaging and texting. Matt Osborn from Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.) provides crucial information so parents know exactly what to teach their kids so they can protect themselves online.
How common sex trafficking is 1:28
Who is running this trade, and what the demand is 6:12
How the victims are being approached 10:37
Staying connected with your child and helping them not get involved online 16:50
Learn more about O.U.R. 19:18
Recognizing the signs of trafficking 21:36
"First and foremost, it's awareness. Just knowing this is out there, educating your child, and letting your child know that they're never gonna get in trouble for telling you as a parent that someone said something inappropriate, or sent an inappropriate picture, or is asking them to do things deep down they know isn't right. Let the child know they won't get in trouble, but they need to share that with the parent. They need to share that with a trusted authority, teacher, or pastor. However, it may be because if left unchecked, that's where they start going down the slippery slope of human trafficking and child exploitation." 5:07
www.ourrescue.org

We’re excited to have Isaac Jacobson on the podcast for this episode. He’s a good friend of Inger’s and a serious expert when it comes to protecting children on the internet. He has 20 plus years of experience working in emerging technologies, ranging from music database services, patented delivery of content online and in retail, and semantic search technologies and app development revolving around transactions with person to person contact validation. Isaac explains that all kinds of apps often have hidden links in places such as the terms and conditions that will lead the user to another server or location where the internet can be browsed, or more links can be found and followed. So parents need to be more aware of the loopholes their kids can and often will find in apps that are seemingly innocent for the kids to use.
Secondary systems and recognizing them 2:14
Understanding apps and the filter 3:18
What parents can do and why tablets are useful 8:47
Isaac’s son being contacted through Instagram and meeting some bad people 14:02
What percentage of predators just disappear when threatened 23:43
Tracking and tracing 29:41
What we can do 35:18
How parents can protect their kids online 37:44
Safe devices and services parents can look at 42:10
“So I urge every parent to open up the privacy policy in the terms and conditions on all those apps and look at those links, and click on them and see where they go. If they end at just a dead web page, that’s one thing, but if they end at a Facebook page, or they end at a server, or they can go to other links. So once you go from there, you can hit multiple links that have all sorts of different things. I think that is something that parents don’t normally look at.” 6:10

On today’s podcast we will learn about emotional intelligence and the critical role it plays in helping children of all ages, and ourselves overcome obstacles at greater ease and avoid preventable mental health issues. We have the pleasure of having Kristi Holt on our podcast, who is an expert on emotional intelligence and is the founder of Vibeonix, a SafeTech approved app that quantifies emotional intelligence using voice analysis AI. Her non-profit, The MECA Project, uses this app to help teens, young adults, and their caregivers find healing, education, and emotional freedom. Accepting your emotions, whether positive or negative, is a healthy part of life that we need to be able to accept and help our children to accept in themselves.
Emotional intelligence 1:08
Information has opened up many routes of thought 5:23
Emotional reaction or emotional response 13:17
How to help a child manage anger 21:25
Love is the ultimate goal 24:58
Moving emotion and not defining one by the emotion they’re feeling 26:00
Adjusting the way you think of, approach, and experience emotion 38:18
Why am I freaking out? 43:48
4 steps to emotional intelligence and helping angry kids get emotions under control 49:08
Get more information 53:38
“It’s not about what you’re feeling. It’s about are you aware of this current emotion? Are you managing this emotion? Are you expressing this emotion? And are you showing yourself empathy? If you go into judgment about emotion, like ‘Oh I shouldn’t feel that,’ that’s shaming yourself about natural feelings that you’re having.” 2:01
aidevlab.com
www.vibeonix.com