Gail Edgecomb is well aware of the pitfalls that lurk with kids and cellphones.
Her daughter Savanna has had one for two years and mom is careful to keep track of how it’s used.
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She’s not alone as parents seemingly everywhere navigate the turbulence of letting a child have a device — there are benefits such as staying in closer contact — and the dangers of social media and the unsavory characters who can travel in the digital world.
Thank goodness today’s cellphones weren’t around in the 1990s, when my kids Julia and David were little. My wife Joanne and I just had to deal with the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky oral sex questions. Those were the days.
In May, more than 50 parents gathered at Luiseño Elementary School, a kindergarten-through eighth grade campus south of Corona, to talk about this topic that’s on every parent’s mind.
The PTA at the school, which is in the Lake Elsinore Unified School District, was one of 200 in the nation to win a $1,250 grant for the event from the PTA Connected: Ready, Tech, Go! national program.
Use of cellphones are banned at the school, said Susan Calva, head of the Luiseño PTA.
“Students are not allowed to have phones out for any reason.”
Not that they don’t have them.
She asked a third-grade class and found that about half the kids had a cellphone. Most of the fourth graders in another survey indicated they had one.
She suspects older kids are more likely to be home alone and parents believe a cellphone is more critical in such cases. Third graders are more innocent and parents don’t want to expose them to the technology, she said.
She doesn’t let her three kids at the school (Miguel, 13; Julian, 12; and Marie, 9) have cellphones.
“Sometimes I feel pressured by my kids or friends to get them a phone,” she said. “It is an individual family’s decision to assess if their kids are ready. Sometimes it concerns me that my kids will be treated differently if they don’t have a phone.”
She said that, during the program, she learned about parental controls for phones of which she was not aware.
“I learned getting a phone is not always bad as long as limits are set and parents’ controls keep them safe and lift them as they get older,” Calva said.
Edgecomb’s 11-year-old daughter Savanna has discovered the power of a cellphone.
She does videos, including how-to drawings, her gymnastics, and clever shoots featuring the family’s three dogs, three birds and two guinea pigs. She films, edits and puts in music.
“They’re just silly, aren’t they Savanna?” she said to her daughter.
Mom said her daughter’s YouTube page has 28,000 followers, powerful proof of what a tech-savvy kid can do with the device.
Maybe those videos aren’t so silly after all.
Edgecomb and her husband Kevin have e-mails from the channel sent to them to make sure nothing weird is happening. They also limit her social media use.
“I’m very involved,” she said.
Edgecomb, 55, obviously didn’t have such devices in her childhood. Still, with the creativity that her daughter is demonstrating with the technology, mom said she sees a lot of her talents in Savanna.
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The challenges Edgecomb faces – you want your child to be up on current trends, but they’re just so much more dangerous today – demonstrates what parents everywhere are wrestling with.
Calva, the PTA president, hopes she’s found a solution.
“As long as you have taught your kids morals, values, right from wrong, young adults will be able to make an educated decision when they come across unwanted content,” she said. “This is an excellent solution for parents with concerns.”
I’m just glad I didn’t have to wrestle with such complicated issues three decades ago.
Reach Carl Love at carllove4@yahoo.com
