Mindy McKnight - Viral Parenting: A Guide to Setting Boundaries, Building Trust, and Raising Responsible Kids in an Online World

Parenting in the digital twenty-first century needs a new rulebook.

Remember when you could shut your doors and what happened in your house stayed within its walls? Or when the worst post-bedtime transgression was reading a book by flashlight under the covers? Nowadays, your little one doesnt have to leave the house in order to be sneaking out after curfew, with fingers flying over that tiny keyboard to keep Snapchat streaks going or texting their friends into the wee hours of the night. Or posting a picture of their new Stan Smiths on Instagram.

Your kids are the Digital Native Generation.

It used to be that wed learn parenting skills from our parents, but now our kids are teaching us how to deal with technology, the Internet, and social media, not one of which existed in such complicated digital form when we were growing up. Say good-bye to the era of analog parenting relics, and hello to the digitally wired-from-birth kids who are instantly savvier about features on their smartphones than well ever be.

So, yes, the rules have changed, but to adapt, first you have to know what the rules are. How can you keep up with what your kids are doing when they download apps and get bored with them before youve even looked at them once?

It is time to be an online digital parent. Yes, its different, but it doesnt have to be scary. In this book I want to teach you how to set basic ground rules that will work no matter what is happening in the digital world, because the only thing I know for sure is that technology will always be a step ahead of us. So, for a parent, whats more important than understanding which apps are most popular at the moment is knowing how to set ground rules with your kids for how they interact and present themselves online.

As one of YouTubes top moms, who also has children who are digital influencers, I know social media, and so do my kids. Thanks to our work experience, using the very same tools our kids use to connect with others; the age range of our six children (from seven to eighteen); and our own age as young parents, my husband and I are uniquely positioned to share what structure works best for children in that range. Born in 1974 and 1978, respectively, were both essentially what you would call Xennialsthe micro-generation born in the late 70s and early 80s. Because we work in a digital space, we age down with our technologies but age up in our parenting.

Were the last generation, in fact, that grew up with an analog childhood, but now have a completely digital adulthood. When the digital era took over, we were young enough to be able to adapt quickly and use the technology readily and efficiently. But our parents have little-to-zero reference today to help teach us how to parent and raise our children, the first fully Digital Native Generation. (Our nickname for our parents generation is the Barely There Digital Generation!) Were all learning as we go, but we hope that by sharing the rules weve established for our six different, hilarious, wonderful, exasperating, determined, tech-savvy, and opinionated kidsrules that weve tested and know truly workyoull be able to create your own digital rules for the unique needs of your family.

Xennials have become a bridge of sorts between the analog and the digital worlds. Because our parents couldnt teach us how to parent in a digital world, we are by default the new-rule creators and influencers. Our children will take how weve raised and parented them and continue that as the standard for their future families. Its really kind of thrilling to be living through this enormous shift in cultural norms, and to be able to create a whole new paradigm for our children.

Our aim is to cover all bases as we teach you how to master these new technologies and platforms and apply the new rules to your own family structure. By involving ourselves in our childrens ever-evolving technological world, we can effectively help them avoid fallout not only in their own lives but also the lives of others.

Much of the time, keeping up with what the kids do online is fun, but the downside to this always-connected world is that it can also be draining and even destructive. You must acknowledge the cons (nave sharing of personal information, pornography, cyberbullying, and lack of interpersonal communication skills at a glance) while encouraging the pros (educational resources, digital community building, and quickly being able to contribute donations, for example, to victims of natural disasters).

How can a parent navigate these waters and mitigate potential pitfalls while providing their children the best opportunities to succeed? You can try to control what your kids do and have access to in your home, but you cant control what they do and what theyre exposed to when theyre outside of it. It used to be easier to keep them in a bubble of protection from the wildness of the world. Now, with Twitter and Instagram, they can find out if theres been a terrorist attack in Paris, France, or Paris, Ohio, within just a few minutes after it happens. Sometimes they know before the mainstream media reports on it. Our children are instantly wired on a global scale, and we dont always have a buffer to discuss and control how we frame the global world for them.

Social media never turns off. Its a 24/7 time snatcher. You cant escape it. You have to know how to control it before it controls youand your children.

Not only is this book full of our tried-and-true rules, best tips, and time-saving hacks (especially for parents balancing full-time work with the demands of family life), but youll learn how to connect with your kids using the coded language of technologyand it is actually another language. In addition, our incredibly tech-savvy children, some of whom have achieved worldwide fame with their own social media channels, are sharing the best of what they know, making this book amazingly helpful not just for you but for your tweens and teens who want to learn from their peers.