A Typical Afternoon of Digital Parenting Today’s Youth (also known as my child)

While at home awaiting the arrival of my sweet child from middle school, I received (and answered) the following text messages.

My first thought was “Oh, sh*t.” Then I took a deep breath. “You got this, tell her you will talk about it when she gets home.” See what I did there, I responded with ‘we will TALK about it.” Having conversations around technology use with your family should be a DAILY occurance.

My second thought was “OK, here we go! Time to pull out the Digital Parenting Savvy Cyber Kids cyberhero skills. So, here is what I did.

STEP ONE:

Went to commonsensemedia.org, searched for the app zooroom.
Results – Nothing found. Damn, this app is too new.

STEP TWO:

Googled zooroom
Results – Found the Apple itunes app store and Google play store links. Then saw the company’s site, zooroom.chat

STEP THREE:

Went to zooroom.chat
Result – ALARMS GOING OFF. NO REGISTRATION !?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!

STEP FOUR:

I went to read the apps reviews. I always ignore the 5 star reviews and look for what is really going on in the user community.
Result – ALARMS GOING OFF!?!?!?!?!?!?!! See selected reviews below.

STEP FIVE:

Decided to research a better alternative for live video chat with more than one person at a time to present to my child. Went back to commonsensemedia.org and search for “group video chat”
Result – narrowed in on two options that have been reviewed for for younger kids (13+ vs 17+/18+). After reading about Fam and Houseparty, I decided Houseparty would actually be the best fit for my child’s needs.

STEP SIX:

Set up House party WITH my middle schooler.

Is your child’s school work collaborative and does he or she need access to a tool for live group video chat? Here are the steps we took to download and install Houseparty in a safe and secure way. Follow these steps (and share with your child’s friends and their parents) so that you can feel safe about your teen on a group video chat.

SETUP INSTRUCTIONS FOR HOUSEPARTY:

Ask your parents if you can use the group video chat app Houseparty.
Download the app when given permission.
When setting up a new account:
- Do NOT use a profile picture.
- Use one of your parent’s email addresses (ask them which one to use).
- Do not put in your real name (a single letter will work just fine).
- For your username, make sure it does not have your real name in it.
- Skip (top-right of screen in gray) – Do NOT enter phone number.
- Address book – click next and then DON’T ALLOW when asked.
- Skip (top-right of screen in gray) – Do NOT connect to facebook.
- On the permissions screen, make these selections:
  - Allow camera and microphone access.
  - For Notifications – tap the circle and select if you want to be notified.
  - For Enable Location – tap the circle and select DON’T ALLOW.
- You will see ADD Friends green button, tap it and select Add By Name and type in all of your usernames for the group chat.
- Start using the app!