Digital Grounding – The New Parental Discipline

As times and technology change, so do the ways in which parents impose discipline and forfeits in their child’s life. This article takes a look at the new disciplinary tool in parental arsenal, that of Digital Grounding.

As in the case of Iantha Carley, parents are now choosing to ground children for bad behavior or falling grades or other transgressions, by using digital grounding – withholding Facebook use, no time on the Play station, or withdrawal of cell phone privileges. “He lived. With no lasting damage,” says Carley.

As there has been a sea change in the way that we live and the way that kids grow up, the things that children value have also changed irrevocably, making the curtailment of digital privileges for the modern equivalent of the old fashioned grounding.

It is the same basic consequence that of depriving the child of social interaction, which earlier depended more on actual contact and which now, occurs through myriad digital means.

In a recently conducted survey, it was found that 62% parents have had the occasion to take away their child’s cell phone as punishment. Amanda Lenhart, coauthor of the survey says, because a communication device like this is vital to a teen’s existence, a curtailment such as this is “getting them where it hurt.”

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

11 − six =

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.