Mastering the Art of Tech-Savvy Parenting

Ready to step up and navigate the digital jungle as a parent? This episode is packed with insightful discussions with Lt Col Smash, a fellow dad, and gamer, on the challenges and solutions to online parenting. Get valuable insights on kid-friendly applications such as Kinzoo and Facebook Messenger for Kids, and tools like Google Family Link to keep your little ones safe while they explore the vast digital world.

We're not just talking tools here, we're also addressing the hard stuff - the ethical implications of making money off young people, the potential pitfalls of popular streaming platforms, and the need to understand the rules that govern these digital spaces. Discover how the Xbox family control system can help you filter content and maintain a secure online environment for your kids. The conversation doesn't shy away from the reality of raising kids in the internet's "infancy" and the challenges it presents to modern parenting. 

Communication is key! Join us as we stress the importance of fostering conversations with your kids about their online activities. Learn how a 'clean slate' can benefit young adults entering the job market and how their online decisions can impact it. Whether you're a parent, an educator, or just someone interested in how the digital age impacts our kids, this episode holds valuable information for you. Let's step into the shoes of our tech-savvy kids and navigate the tricky world of parenting in the age of technology together.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to dad mode, a podcast that is to try for us, a game streaming and dad life, okay All right, welcome to dad mode podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:07

I'm. This is more back again with bearded Nova. Tonight we have a guest with us, lieutenant girl smash. He is a fellow dad to two kids. He is a gamer, he is a streamer. He's been doing this for about three years on Twitch, yeah, technology, with, with, with, with the kids. So you know we've talked previously about, you know, protecting them from things. When I gave my son a, a phone, we immediately put bark on there and the Google family family link I think it is family link helps protect against the app usage bark. The biggest thing I like about it is it analyzes all emails and texts that he sends and receives for context and says and sends you an alert and say I think something sounds like a bullying or violent or he sounds depressed.

Speaker 1: 0:57

They didn't know that was that.

Speaker 2: 0:59

Yeah, it's pretty cool. Um, you know, so do you smash, you know? Since you obviously are all about gaming and streaming tech, do you think, uh, what kind of kind of apps or tools out there do you think help parents kind of protect the kids from the craziness on the internet? Uh, in general, yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:21

So, and I'm not certain if I'm handling that's the correct way, but, as I've already discussed, I'm kind of leaning towards the avoidance right now, which which I know I can't do forever, um, but we do. We do want our kids to start communicating using technology in an appropriate way, and we've started with applications that first let them communicate with us, so that they can be, they can communicate and they can be communicated to in an appropriate way in like a bubble, and there's one that we really like called Kinzoo and.

Speaker 3: 1:56

Kinzoo yeah, you can. Um, I think one of both of you mentioned one where you can like approve which kids get a. No, I think he said Facebook, yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:06

It was an American app and it finally came to like a push world war. It was uh, no I'm it's not somewhat small, but then I pushed it. World war now.

Speaker 3: 2:17

Okay, so, so that would be like a part of Facebook. This is it's kind of its own thing, and separate, oh, it's separate.

Speaker 1: 2:24

It's not built into Facebook. The kids don't have to have a Facebook account. Nothing, it is just, it's, it's linked to the parents account. They don't need a Facebook. They, they, they, them. Having Facebook Messenger for kids doesn't give them access to Facebook. It only gives them access to, to the Messenger app itself. So it's, it's okay, it's all for the parents. You know, cause the parents are going to probably be connected to some way. So then, cause the parents are connected, I know you know this daughter's friend, so I called that to her parent. I'll send her a request saying hey, it's Josh Bailey, wants to talk to such and such. Okay, and then she will. You know, I'll see she goes. I'll call. I know Josh. Yeah, I know him.

Speaker 3: 3:09

I know that tick and you can approve the connections then, yes, it sounds like they have similar features, except this does not work with the Messenger situation. This is its own isolated Messenger.

Speaker 1: 3:21

Yeah, it doesn't work with and no strangers can find them on there, like it's real Lockdown to. Just only people with kids Messenger accounts can see kids Messenger stuff. So it's yeah, it's very locked down.

Speaker 3: 3:39

Oh, when this goes up, you guys need to to put along a list of these recommended apps on these episodes. This is great. This is great information, yeah, so I mean, like I said, I lean on the avoidance side of it, but I want them to dip their toes. So I'm trying to find these applications or some a couple of other things, when I finally do get them into a cell phone. I know that in the States there is a cell phone provider with an Android operating system that every time they want to download something, you have to approve it or deny it.

Speaker 1: 4:11

That's just Android in general. Familylink FamilyLink in Android yeah, yeah. So yeah, you can set all the app age limits. Iphones Apple has a similar thing with their family screen sharing or whatever. When I used to have an iPhone, so the kids would actually have to anything, including free apps, they'd choose it. Then I'd get a notification on my phone, go and such and such wants to install this app, and then I click on it and opens the app store so I can see the app and then I approve it, any purchases they make, because you find all those horror stories of kids that jump onto someone's Xbox and brought, you know, 50,000 Madden points, the roadblocks or whatever. You know it has to be approved for your phone, basically everything they do.

Speaker 3: 5:02

I'm hoping it's easier to use than the Xbox family. Why?

Speaker 1: 5:06

Why? Because that's just why, oh my gosh.

Speaker 3: 5:08

Yeah, have you guys seen the Xbox? Nothing against my stuff, I'm an IT guy man. They have convoluted that family control system, familylink help center. It's just.

Speaker 1: 5:21

Yeah, I get these emails every time I'm going how Microsoft such and such is weekly update or whatever on that computer. So then they send me this email. I look at it and it doesn't have anything in it. I'm like I know they use that computer. I don't know what is this Like. It doesn't show me any Bing searches or anything. I have no clue what they've actually done.

Speaker 2: 5:40

Although I will say, and I agree, it's not the best app, it is not as helpful as it should be. We restrict internet searching and I'm glad because I don't know if I'm ready to see what my son searches for. I feel like it would frighten me.

Speaker 1: 6:00

I actually had to use filtered words to restrict searches. This is quite a few years ago from my son with the iPads, because all of him and all these friends have got iPads at school. And I remember getting called into the teacher's office to him and a couple of friends because one friend had discovered big boobs, anime girls. So they said that's all their friends. They said it's all their friends. There's a group of like eight year old boys, oh no, and they all shared the link.

Speaker 1: 6:39

So they've got these anime boobs all on their iPads and the teachers walk through the class and seen it. So then she's called all the parents and I'm like God damn it. Now I have to restrict the words in here. I had to go through and lock down all these words but like no, no, there's over there.

Speaker 3: 6:54

He's telling him hey kids, you know, you don't have to search for the other ones, you can just search anime and it just comes out. Just use anime.

Speaker 2: 7:01

You can type it anywhere. And it's going to show you stuff on the on song real.

Speaker 1: 7:06

That was, that was my introduction, until crap. I actually have to filter it because I just kind of didn't even think like he never thought about it, just turned out to be another kid. I went oh look, you can do this on an iPad so that all the boys are standing on. Oh wow, look at this, yeah, yeah. We haven't had to do that ever since, but it cracked me up. Well, at the time I cracked me up, I'm like, oh yeah, so he's a boy, okay, okay. And then I'm just trying to figure out how this situation unfolded in class for the poor teacher that walked around.

Speaker 3: 7:39

So when we were young we had to work for it. We had to figure out how we were going to get into a store. How are we going to get into the white section?

Speaker 1: 7:46

How about you have to wait ten minutes for that JPEG to lard?

Speaker 2: 7:52

Wait, wait, wait. I don't know what you're talking about. You're good. Yeah, it was effort, it was effort for us, and I feel like nobody complained at the end because it's like he worked hard for that. So this might be a bit up topic, so feel free to cut this out if we need to. But something that does concern me too, about having a cell phone in particular, is sending or sharing actual pictures of classmates in compromising situations, and that worries me to know no end, more so than seeing a hot tub stream on Twitch, because that kind of thing, depending on your kid's age and the other person's age, could get them in lifelong trouble, and I know you know where I'm talking about.

Speaker 1: 8:45

Yes, we, this one I talked about especially with some reason, I feel boys are more likely to share stuff, like to pass it around, where girls are more likely to create the content that gets shared around, like usually that's how it unfolds down here Most of the stories that you hear back on. So I've been very one with some. Just, you don't share things that don't belong to you. That's very quickly, well, like that. And then the door and all the kids. You know I'm a great example of things that you put on the internet and stay on the internet. So I'm showing it. Like you know, I can Google myself and these images are pop up Like it does. It's not pop up on the internet, it's there. It's not going away. You can't take it back. So don't ever share anything over your phone to someone that you do not want the whole world to see because they realistically, it only takes a second for everyone to see it.

Speaker 3: 9:47

Yeah, and to Morphe's point gosh, it doesn't even have to be their device. He you know classmates sharing things around, just being silly in a locker room, being silly outside of school and doing something goofy, and then someone snaps a picture of it with their device and they start sharing it around and that's going to be a real problem and I know there's been movies and TV shows based upon that type of cyber bullying and it's yeah, yeah, I don't know how you educate your children Not to make parents out there who are listening to this, fearful of the internet, but it's a real discussion that you not need to have with them, no different than looking both ways when you cross the road.

Speaker 2: 10:34

It really is. It's a lot of. It is about just trying to teach them to be the best people that you can be, trying to tell them you know the smart things to do and, again, without, I guess, without scaring them tell them the ramifications of what could happen in various situations. You know, and in order to do that you have to have talking about other things along the way, the way to you know, but it's, it's. It's a different world.

Speaker 2: 11:00

And now bearded nights are before, like when you have a kid. They give you the kid. All right, see you, you know, but how do I, what do I do with this thing? How do I take care of this thing? There's no, there's no handbook, real that you wouldn't become a parent, so you have to fix it up. And also, it's a mistake to try to raise your kid the way you were raised, because the gen, the generations, are different. So if you're a parent and you're not into social media, you're not into gaming, you're not into live streaming, you really need to pay attention to some level of the kind of things your kids are getting into, because they can be getting into situations that you have no knowledge about and won't be able to help them if you don't, yeah.

Speaker 1: 11:40

I think that's a really wrap up actually of this whole subject. To be honest, you just nailed it. I was like you just condensed everything perfectly there. I was all the way.

Speaker 2: 11:53

So kids are? We agree, kids are a problem. It's, it's, it's. It's scary, like I was.

Speaker 2: 12:00

That, uh, I was telling you guys I was at a fair today for Godly eight hours, I was so tired. But and we saw one of my wife's friends there with their two kids, who are your who're you're younger than my youngest, so they're nine, and they had gone off a ride and parents, yeah, we're sitting right over here. They went the other way to say because they wanted to go to the next ride, they ran off and in a fair, you know, and then I'm walking around and the mom comes up have you seen my two children? I'm like, no, why? Like, because we don't know where they are. And it's a fair, lots and lots and lots of people, and she's, she's freaking out as she should. And you know, I looked around and see and then later I saw them, like they saw the son, the, the twin kids, and the daughter wasn't there and they're like, you know, you say like where's your sister? And he's like I don't know over there. What do you mean? I don't know over there. You know, um, and that's just like.

Speaker 2: 12:57

And I'm thinking so I'm going to Comic-Con and I bring you a heart and drop when you hear that, yes, I'm going to Comic-Con in a couple weeks with my kids in New York City for the first time me alone in their first time in the City. Comic-con will have tens of thousands of people there and my 10 year old likes to wander. So I'm like I gotta get like an air tag for him or something. I, you know, I gotta do something, because he's small too. Like if he turned, if he went the wrong way, like he's short, I won't see him. So I'm trying to like I gotta get some kind of technology so that I can track him wherever he is.

Speaker 1: 13:31

Look, you know that they don't go out of that either.

Speaker 1: 13:35

My brother growing up is two years younger than me. Majority of my childhood I spent. We go to the shopping center and within a couple of minutes he'd be disappeared and my job was to go collect him from the information center because that's where he was showing up at Boston found, and that happened Every time we went out. My mom recently went overseas with him to Polly. Same thing happened there. She lost him nearly every time they went out. Like he's 30, something now mid 30s, and he's still getting lost. So just so you know your children don't grow out of that. They seem to.

Speaker 3: 14:10

If you got wanderers, they're gonna be wanderers their whole life you know, my opinion on leashes on children has changed over the time.

Speaker 2: 14:20

Yes, yeah, I was telling the boys you know, if you guys ever do it, what her kids did, you're gonna have a leash. And my kids like, but I'm 12, like I don't care, you're not wandering away, like my job is to keep you alive and teach you how to be an adult and a human being over within 18 years, and you know it's to get you to 18.

Speaker 3: 14:43

I'm not embarrassed by this leash. You are.

Speaker 2: 14:48

Yeah, I don't care. You know you'll get some dirty look, but there'll be some parents like, yeah, yeah, oh, I get it.

Speaker 1: 14:59

Sorry, another one you want to bring up. It's hoping you want to go for Um, so it's good off out out.

Speaker 2: 15:10

So I had touched on the appropriateness of we can focus on this. I can say I had touched on the appropriateness of like Twitch, on the live streaming services, like that. I think you have to be 13 to be on there, but and I know you have had some strong opinions about various streaming services twitch and kick Do you think it's appropriate for kids to be on on those services?

Speaker 1: 15:34

Yeah, let's, let's go that one. I think that's a good topic.

Speaker 3: 15:37

Yeah, you know what I think it is, but I think what needs to happen is and and I'm actually going through a course right now for my MBA, and we're talking about digital systems or information systems, and ethics, some of the do no harm type type things, and I think right now we were at a Crossroads of ethics and making money and those two are starting to separate. Maybe they've been separating for longer than I mean, I think, but they are so there's. They see young people as a future revenue stream, regardless of what age. But I really think that these streaming platforms really need to come up with a creative way ethically to verify young people's identity and and I think it's it's a responsibility. So we have two things right Do we ban content on different types of social media or do we do a better job of Rating it and then Verifying the viewers?

Speaker 3: 16:46

That way, we're not banning stuff, but we we have a consensus of viewership that says we all agree that this age is really not appropriate and and that is, I think, should be left a description, discretion of the platform, with some input from key stakeholders, parents and and alike, and it's got it eventually. Not everyone's gonna be happy, but I think the verification process needs to be there on platforms, video games, applications, technology, this, this sounds bad in a way, but it's so easy to go.

Speaker 1: 17:25

Yeah, bring it back to again us being younger and the internet. Are you over 18?

Speaker 2: 17:34

Yes, by the way, if I the only one that said no, yes, I.

Speaker 3: 17:50

Just thought those questions were supposed to be like an honesty question. I was like, oh yeah, no, I'm not 18 quick. I was like, no, it wasn't on me, yes, yes. You guys are talking about.

Speaker 1: 18:03

It's. I think a lot of that like is yes, it needs to be graded better and put into appropriate sections, where it needs to be on different platforms, but the end of the day, it's still gonna roll back to us as parents, educating on what's appropriate and what's not appropriate at age levels to yeah, because you, you can't.

Speaker 2: 18:29

You can be a helicopter parent, but that's not the best for your kid. You need your kids to be at a point where they, having heard enough lessons from you, know what's right and what's not, and you can trust them to make their own, their own decisions, because you can't. You know you want to be involved, you want to have an idea of what's going on in their lives, what kind of things they're doing and looking at stuff like that, but you know you can't be there all of the time, so the best thing you do is try to teach them oh, this is, this is appropriate for you, this is not, and here's why not. Just don't do this, because I said so like give them the reason why. Hopefully they'll be mature enough to understand those reasons when you give them and that'll help them logically process you know what, why they shouldn't do something like. So you can trust them to be on twitch and they'll see Amaranth stream pop up like I'm not gonna go to that, that's not made for me basically as well.

Speaker 1: 19:24

And then that's going back to the last one, last episode where I said my son got caught at school Old boys looking at pictures around me, girls I that was sit down conversation that we had gone. Hey, mate, you're not at the appropriate age that this is intended for. This isn't for you, this is for adults. I know it looks like cartoons, that's not, but that's educating and talking about what's appropriate and what's not. And I haven't had that situation again.

Speaker 1: 19:56

But curiosity gets in and I feel like, in a way, if you try to shelter them and withdraw and not share that information about what's appropriate and what's not, it could also lead to them seeking it behind your back, being not trustworthy with you. They said well, they said no, so I'm just going to do it, not tell my parents. And you think about like the old stories, like boys or girls that are in boarding schools, that are all boys and all girls but then they sneak out to see the girls or to sneak out to see the boys. It's a very cliche type of story, but it's a way of like cool, you don't need to go over school with boys and girls because it's distraction or whatever, but they seek it intentionally because of that.

Speaker 3: 20:45

It's a weird metaphor to it, but that's it. I think there was the interesting thing about that is always girls, all ages, we've always, we've all done things that our parents, I'm sure, would just be appalled at, and maybe our parents knew and just kind of ignored some of it. But when you did that, when you snuck out and went to the girls dormitory or when you got caught with the magazine underneath the bed or something like that, there were repercussions, right, and you knew there were repercussions, so you knew to hide it. You definitely want to make sure going back to what both of you said was communicating with them what is and is not appropriate and why, what the ramifications of that are. But there also needs to be, because young people's brains don't understand like long-term penalties and disruptors. They understand more quickly the instantaneous. So I think there should be repercussions when they're caught with it.

Speaker 3: 21:42

I had a family computer in the public area growing up, right, because you can only afford one PC back then. Right, so could I do stuff like that? Yeah, but you know what. You snuck down and you get in the dark. You did something and you knew if you got caught you were in some serious trouble. But now the technology at their fingertips and where they can hide it. It's almost like they don't even need to try to hide because they'll never find out, because I thought we got apps. Yeah, well, that's yeah, that's what it's like, and age-gating and all those things.

Speaker 1: 22:12

That's technically why we got them, because there's so many ways to get around it there. Yeah, I remember how great it was when I got my first job and I saved up you know money and then I had this money aside and it was going to be for a car and then my father ended up borrowing me some money so he brought me a car instead. So I had, like you know, $3,000 sitting there on my bank account that my mother had always said I wasn't allowed to touch for a car. And then he has a car that I didn't spend the money on and I remember looking at it going. You know what this means. We're going out Saturday. You got to take me around to all these computer shops and I'm building my own computer, so I'm no longer sharing with everyone. Yeah, I remember that day so well. Yeah, you know, a whole lot of my life was building my first PC for myself to escape the family.

Speaker 2: 23:03

I remember this isn't me, this is a friend the searching the internet way back in the day and maybe trying to download something a family computer and maybe accidentally setting it as wallpaper instead, and then perhaps not realizing that and going away and then hearing hey, can you come in here for a second? Yeah, what's this? I don't know, I don't know, I don't know what that is. So, yeah, maybe that happens. So one good thing about the technology even though they have more access to things than we did easier, there's also more logs.

Speaker 2: 23:43

There's more ways to find out what they're doing than we do If somebody had a magazine, you just throw it away or whatever, and then there's no proof that it ever existed. And so far, it's not that easy with. You have a digital footprint, no matter what you, whether you realize it or not.

Speaker 3: 24:02

Yeah, I would love for young people to be able to like expunge their anything they did prior to a certain age. That would be a great thing with technology, just a clean slate. You're now an adult, now you get a reset. That would be awesome if they could do that.

Speaker 2: 24:17

Yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't. So when I at my job, if I'm hiring somebody, I'm doing, or my company is doing, social media research and if you, as a 15 year old, poses something stupid with your actual name, I'm probably going to run across it and I'm going to use that as part of the basis of whether I want to hire you or bring you in for an interview anyway and that to your point, smash that maybe that's not fair. There have been kids that I have I have not brought in. They say they're right out of college and everything I find I'm supposed to meet is them just drinking at parties. Maybe that's not fair for me to use that, but you know I have.

Speaker 1: 24:56

Right, but you can like we've done the same thing but my wife and I I moved from a wife's job. She does a lot of government work and A lot of community work in between, a lot of interactions with people, so it can be disgruntled people. So she locks her Facebook down pretty damn well, like you wouldn't be able to find her on social media unless she reaches out to you. And I feel that's also probably a smarter thing for kids to do. And I met that if you're coming out of high school, college, getting into that work environment, go through your social media and clean it up. Like going back to that. Like clean it up, think about what it is. Lock it down if you have to.

Speaker 1: 25:48

It's something that you know. It might not be harmless. It could be completely harmless as just going out and drinking, but there's more said that it's going to dictate you. And I'll admit the same Every time I get a new staff member or something like that cool social media search. See it kind of gauged people straight off that. What I find on the internet, what their name pops up, is the type of personality that I could be wrong, but that's my initial impression.

Speaker 2: 26:14

That's who they really are. That's who they are with their when the cameras are quote unquote. The cameras aren't looking on, you know, and that's fine. But yeah, I mean, you want to be careful. You got to be careful. You got to teach them about things.

Speaker 2: 26:28

You know, I've been doing this for three years and even today, if I search my legal name with more for it's more, there's no searches like so I've done a good job so far of keeping them separate. One time a sponsor thanked me on Twitter using my legal name and I'm like, please take that down. I don't want you to do that. You know I really want to keep things separate. So you know, that's not that I want to teach my kids that, because then I wouldn't be able to find out what they're doing. But you know that's something that to think about, one way to protect your yourself. So it's one thing to not look at content, it's one thing to do not do stupid things, but it's another thing to also teach them that you know, at least by the time they're 16, now colleges and potential employers might find this stuff. So be careful what you're putting out there.

Speaker 3: 27:18

Yeah, and you guys both of you have now mentioned it using teaching your kids critical thinking and that critical thinking of how their actions have repercussions either now or tomorrow. And that way, when they do reach a point where you cannot assist them or you're not looking over your shoulder because you don't want to be a helicopter parent, they will probably. Even if you've just mentioned it, it's something that you can slowly encourage them to do and ingrain them, and regularly mentioned it, it will pop in their head. You know, should I be doing this, Should I be posting this? And they still make mistakes, but hopefully we'll reduce that.

Speaker 1: 27:59

I think that that is probably the most important takeaway that I've gotten from our discussion is really that preparing your young people for smart decision making with technology Right, so I'll get back to age and the content on the internet getting into some of these things like Twitch, and that I could never trust one of my children to no, no, no, no, my children.

Speaker 1: 28:29

I can't trust the content coming from kick, my children to ever be on that. But at least with Twitch I know my son wanted to because I know some of the content creators he likes, like DanTDM, and they're all pretty safe, kid orientated creators that he likes Like there's no one inappropriate there that he doesn't like. But I know him going into DanTDM's chat on Twitch or something. If he was to, it wasn't going to be completely vulgar and that and I know that the mods and that would do a great job etc. You know what I mean. Like I have a bit of trust in the creator itself there, whereas if he decided to start browsing on kick I would have no clue what. I would say no instantly if he's told me he was doing a kick thing because I couldn't trust the platform and what the platform was going to dish out in any direction, whether it be chat or the video, because it's wild over there.

Speaker 2: 29:34

The hot tub streams are worse over there and while Twitch does have still have gambling, they didn't ban gambling. They banned it to some companies. Kick, they promote it. Twitch doesn't promote it. You want to go find it? Then go find it. Twitch says it's right here, right in the center of the categories are on the main page. It's looking at the half naked women is one thing. That is teaching kids that little girls what they're supposed to look at are little boys. Hey, I can objectify women and that's cool. No, it's not. But the gambling is another thing altogether. That can very easily and quickly ruin your life.

Speaker 3: 30:21

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 30:23

Every so often when we bring up kick, I just don't keep logged into it. I like to load up the kickcom and see actually what it dishes to me. As someone who's not into an account logged in, I suppose I'm someone I would never trust with my children and Amarov, that's the front page, that is my front page. That and gambling it's got slot machines on. That's what's offering me as a new creator. So imagine if your kids going to kick to watch a stream and I haven't had any camp that is what it's pushing at them straight away as a day you go. Welcome to our platform.

Speaker 3: 31:04

It's funny If you think about it. We've had hundreds and thousands of years of society learning how to communicate with each other. How do we interact with each other? Sometimes we've done it well, sometimes we've done it not well, but yeah, it's interesting if you look at it from the big timeline the internet, the social media age. We are in an infancy and I think we are at least in the US I can always speak freely for the US I think we are struggling to know how to use it in a mature fashion, both adults and young people. It's because we're in such an infancy, we're developing. We don't know best practices and how to communicate with each other in an appropriate way that is beneficial to society.

Speaker 2: 31:52

It came to life within my lifespan. I was 20 or so before any of this really happened, so it's relatively new. One name I was going to add to that list is one of Kicks' biggest partners, aiden Ross. He was one of the founding guys on Kick and he has the most vile opinions, says the worst things and, knowing that, his audience is like 10 to 13, he has a really, really young audience soaking up all this stuff that is bigger than what Guy says he's shown porn on his street. I don't mean this to bash kick or bash him, but I guess what my point here is parents really have to pay attention to some of the things your kids are doing.

Speaker 3: 32:52

I get it your life might be busy.

Speaker 2: 32:54

Find a way to look at what they're doing and don't just lecture. Explain.

Speaker 1: 33:00

I don't want to best be comparing platforms 100%, but I've done a incognito brought up to which dot TV to see would have pushed over to me in that sense Shroud, which I think it's not too bad. He's a big streamer but he's not someone I would say is completely inappropriate. I know a lot of kids watch him. It's not one bit of gambling. If I scroll down on my incognito page I have not been shown boobs, hot tubs or anything like that. Even the first game that was up to top was some moon like weird indie development pixel art game Like it's nothing in here. Screaming. That would make me, as a parent, walk-passer not know what Twitch is and go holy crap, what the hell are you watching you on some type of private site? I wouldn't get that as a parent. If I walk-passed the screen and saw this on my kids computer I wouldn't be scared straight away, I guess.

Speaker 3: 34:02

We're pretty lucky. We're three guys who are fairly well integrated into this ecosphere of technology and social media. What do you think if my wife, for example who's not if she had to raise the children and she had to do all of that? What would you recommend to her and say hey, here's how you get involved, here's how you educate yourself and here's how you learn. Where do you start?

Speaker 2: 34:29

I think, for social media, create an account. Create an account on the social media and use them a little bit. Don't get yourself addicted to them, but go into them and learn about it, how it works, what you can see, how you can filter, all that kind of stuff. And then I think, for other platforms, I think that's the best way to do. It is just to try them out. If you know your kid is interested in Twitch, go on Twitch in browse, go on other platforms and in browse, but get into it. A lot of parents, even my wife, will be like I don't understand Twitter. Do you have a Twitter? No, get Twitter and look. Don't just read articles about it. Actually go in there and see what it's like, because an article could either be very biased one way or the other and that's not really going to give you the insight you needed to what to do with it, how to think about it.

Speaker 3: 35:22

One pause for anyone listening out there. That does not mean if your spouse comes to you and asks what only fans is, don't tell them to start an account. Don't do it.

Speaker 2: 35:32

Fair point.

Speaker 1: 35:34

Fair example. That's all I was saying in the last episode of my Wife and one of it is what my children see. So she's friends with them on those platforms. Obviously, none of them are on Twitter because we don't mention the other name, because it doesn't really exist. So Twitter they know that kids are interested in it. That's like an old man's platform, basically. Now I fail. I've tried using my Twitter notoriety towards my children to show off and none of them care. I'm like look at me, I'm friends with Barack Obama. How is that not cool? They're like a Britney Spears. I went for all these weird celebrities that follow me for no fucking reason that I still don't know, but I still think it's cool to brag to people about and none of my children care because it's Twitter and it doesn't mean anything.

Speaker 2: 36:39

Right, yeah, twitter is dead to them and Facebook is for your grandparents. Yeah, that's what they think. So, even as you were saying, we were in this, we understand it. Even me, like someone like oh, what about this? This is a trending new app, this new profile social platform, like, what is that? Now? Like you know what I mean, I have all I can do to keep up with like the five apps that I know about. And then there's another one, you know, so I'm like fine, let me sign up for a stupid account. That's what this is all about, you know? Like, be like, be real, right yeah?

Speaker 1: 37:13

that was real yeah.

Speaker 2: 37:15

And then to get so popular that TikTok decided to make a clone. And then making a clone was the first time I'd ever heard of be real. I was like we'll shoot, let me go take a look and see what the real is all about. And you know. So it's it. Parents, I get it. It's hard. It's hard to do it, but Smash and Nova and myself, who are who do this I wouldn't say for a living, that is not true who are who do this for 20 hours a week or month, still have trouble. Keep up. So don't be hard on yourself.

Speaker 2: 37:46

I guess I'm saying no, and when you can't keep up with it. But just, I guess it's important to keep that open dialogue with the kids and pay attention to what they're doing. Don't be helicopter parent, but don't be absent either. No take our balance.

Speaker 3: 38:01

Yeah, take an interest in it. I've noticed that when I, even if I goof around and joke about and I know that kids don't say woot anymore, but I tease and I joke about that stuff my kids are saying well, my dad is trying to be cool and actually in a way that he's you know and he's activating. Yeah, he's being self depravating and he's like, oh, he's making fun of himself. That's kind of cool and that keeps an open dialogue, and they're like oh, hey who's that?

Speaker 3: 38:29

Who's that streaming you're watching? Or what's this YouTube video you're watching? And they're like, oh, this is this one. And so if just taking five minutes and watching what they're watching, you know, I'm like you know what, I didn't make any good choices. I can leave the room and they think, oh, dad's cool. So when they want to have a dialogue with you, they don't. They feel like they can because you're excited about it.

Speaker 1: 38:47

I said my son. The first YouTube creator he's really followed was DanTDM, and I hit him up about different content creators at the time. My God, you watch this person? Do you watch? You know Doc the Doc? Do you watch? Doctor Disrespect, no, no, no. And then you know, I look into DanTDM. At the time he's playing Hello Neighbor in Minecraft and games that he actually was interested in. Like, that's taking that little bit of time and knowing the people that he follows on YouTube, I guess is, and it's a nice bridge. It gives you something to talk about with them as well, like, but that's, yeah, definitely jump on the platforms, definitely see what they're doing. Have a little sticky beak into who they're following, I guess.

Speaker 2: 39:39

I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know what sticky beak is.

Speaker 1: 39:44

Smash it out your balls, like what I fucking did for it it's kind of like just having a look out of their shoulder, just having a look, yeah, just keeping an eye on what they're doing without them knowing what you're doing.

Speaker 3: 39:57

You know what, Nova? I am going to use that and I'm going to try to see if I can play it. I'm going to film myself. You said it appropriately. Hey honey, let's put the kids to bed and go talk a little sticky beak. So am I using it? Right or wrong? No, I'm not All right. Aaron, if you listen to this, this is probably one of the podcasts, maybe done by your children.

Speaker 2: 40:22

This is on a dad mode, after dark. This is the section here. So, smash, is there anything you kind of want to say to wrap this up, like your thoughts on, you know, appropriate content for your kids and whatnot.

Speaker 3: 40:38

No, so, yeah, so, and I know I'm just reiterating myself, but pay a little attention to it, show interest in it. When you show interest in it, at first they may not be open to discussing it, but they will be excited. If you're excited, and they're going to be, it's going to create a pathway for dialogue. When they create a pathway for dialogue and something is not right to you and something that they're doing in social media games adding a friend in, you know, in Fortnite, whatever they might be doing you say hey, what do you think? Do you think that's a good idea? Do you think they should be adding, what are they like, what are their parents like? And then they might and they go oh well, what is my dad or mom know about this that I don't, and just give them a pause. So I think, stay involved, stay excited and feel free to watch YouTube with them and TikTok occasionally and literally in the TikTok stuff, but Twitch and play games with them. Keep that connection open All right, yes, yeah, very so.

Speaker 2: 41:46

Hey, thanks for you know tuning into the podcast today. If you'd like it, be sure to share it, leave comments and we'll catch you next time on Facebook.