Grown-ups just don’t get it

Whether it’s the printing press, the internet or even the invention of writing, we’ve always been scared of new things.

The other day Education Minister Hekia Parata announced the Government was looking at students being able to do their schooling entirely online.

Already I’ve heard people saying this is terrible, this is the end of the world. What about social skills? Will it be the same as a real education? Blah blah blah.

Some people are saying it’s good, some say it’s bad – it’s like the world isn’t really sure.

I think it’s a difference between kids and their parents really. Parents might have doubts, but I’m not sure their kids will. They might like the idea of controlling their own education, doing it at their own pace.

So once again the internet is opening up whole new ways of living that are quite foreign to the grown-ups. And that immediately causes concerns.

The thing about the internet is that it’s not necessarily good or bad, it’s a thing – but both good and bad can come from it.

Technology affords young people opportunities that our generation never had. For instance, a 22-year-old left his job in Auckland to become a Pokemon trainer.

But without doubt there are also bad things.

A guy who basically spent his career in the police posing as a predator told me that the first question online predators will typically ask children is, ‘‘Who can see your screen?’’ And if the answer they get is, ‘‘No one, I’m in my room’’, then the conversation shifts into a different gear.

But if the child says, ‘‘I’m sitting in the kitchen and my family’s here’’, then they disappear. Things like that are super-helpful to know as a parent.

There’s also all the stuff around teenagers and their exposure to pornography, because of the kind of messages it gives them about what’s normal and what’s not normal.

Because kids will send images of themselves to people, and that’s kind of seen as being normal. And if your teenage daughter is sending pictures of herself to some teenage boy, what are the chances that those images are going to end up being sent to other people?

So there are some pretty big potential downsides to technology, and sitting down to talk with your kids about all this stuff is superimportant.

You can’t just assume that they’re behaving responsibly. You really need to talk to them about technology and the internet in the same way that parents in days gone by sat their kids down for the old ‘‘birds and the bees’’ talk.

Don’t assume that they’re not doing it, or won’t do it, or that they’ve thought through what putting stuff about themselves on the internet really means – because a lot of them haven’t.

I’ve got a 16-year-old and a 13-year-old. They’re really different. One of my guys is into geography and history, so he predominantly uses the internet to get information about his interests.

The other one’s really into gaming. But he’s also interested in coding and creating content, and so he uses the internet to educate himself about how to make stuff.

So even within our house we have these two teenagers who both use the internet in very different ways. But I’m fine with it, because it will be helpful to them in the long-term.

The evidence is really clear that your under-twos shouldn’t be doing any of this, because screens aren’t good for their little brains. But after that it’s almost like kids are disadvantaged if they can’t learn how to navigate that world.

I think we’ve always been scared of new things. And we’ve always been scared that the next new thing coming along would be the end of the world.

That was the case when the printing press was invented. Socrates said something similar about writing. Inevitably it isn’t the end of the world, it’ s just a change.

For young people I think technology is about possibilities, and where we can screw it up is if we become too scared nd we make assumptions about the internet and social media and we limit our kids based on those assumptions.

Because the next new thing could come out of Timaru, or Manurewa – just some kid writing code on a laptop. The next big thing.

And that’s pretty cool.

The Hard Stuff With Nigel Latta: Screenagers airs Tuesday at 8.30pm on TV ONE. The whole series is available to watch now on TVNZ OnDemand.