Dr. Gilboa Teaching Respect to Children, Respect for Others!

Join Dave and Bill today for our interview with Deborah Gilboa MD - Teaching Respect to Children, Respect for Others As Well As Themselves. With an emphasis on why it is important for children to respect themselves as a way to keep safe.

 

www.deborahgilboamd.com

 

She is a board certified family physician (and mother of four). Deborah sees primarily kids and teens in her practice, as well as speaking locally to students and parents about technology in the middle and high school years, specifically regarding texting and internet issues.

 

Talking points:

 

 1. What is sexting? (any pic or text or email that is meant to get the other person thinking about sexual intimacy or hooking up)
 2. Why is it bad? (risk that tween/teen will be pressured into more intimacy than they are ready for, risk of forwarding, posting it to others, social damage, future (college admin looking at Facebook etc))
 3. Why is it good? - why do tween/teens do it? A way of experimenting with a very interesting topic that they believe is much safer than actual intimacy - they may be right!
 4. What can parents do?
a. privacy is not a right, it's a privilege. Look at their phone/email/IM etc
b. ASK about it - and listen to the answers you get
c. Keep it an open, ongoing conversation. Listen more than you talk.
d. find ways to talk about this that don't involve your tween/teen directly - watch TV with them or listen to music with them, you will get plenty of opportunities to talk about sexting.
e. be slow to judge, and firm with your own convictions. Teens don't have to agree with you to hear you.