There’s never been a better time to be an entrepreneur than now, and our kids will face even greater possibilities for business startups over the next decade. Digital technologies have broken down barriers that previously prevented many people from pursuing their business ideas. From thirteen-year-olds posting comedy sketches on YouTube to traditional book publishers creating apps, the distance from idea to implementation has shrunk significantly.

The downside is the plethora of bad concepts that have materialized into failed products. However, with the increase in failures comes the inevitable increase in successful products. As entrepreneur Kevin O’Connor said (in a Financial Post interview): “You need to come up with a lot of bad ideas before you come up with the great idea.”

We are doing our kids a favour by helping them realize that their favourite digital gadgets are more than entertainment units. They are incredible tools for creating and sharing ideas and products. Having self-published a book, I learned first-hand the changing landscape of an industry that was always very closed to entrepreneurs. New printing technologies and online promotion enable writers to take a concept from story idea to printed book sold on Amazon. Sharing this experience with my children helped them recognize how empowering digital technology can be. If such opportunities were unavailable ten years ago, imagine how many more possibilities will arise in another ten years.

By helping our children explore the possibilities of online technologies, we can encourage them to develop innovation alongside a sense of empowerment. This will prepare them to exploit not only today’s opportunities, but those of the future. Below are some of the ways I encourage my kids to think like an entrepreneur:

• Talk about digital leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates. Discuss how they changed the face of the virtual and real world.
• Find articles magazines, newspapers and online sites to share with your kids that explain entrepreneurialism in simple terms or celebrate a young entrepreneur.
• Ask your kids to come up with cool invention ideas – it doesn’t matter how crazy the idea. Ask them how their invention would solve a problem.
• Start an Inventor Journal for your kids to keep a record of their ideas, whether it’s a story, video, or product. Pull it out regularly to encourage them to add to it.
• Talk about how virtual technologies relate to “real” world. For example, explain the pros and cons of technologies like debit cards, Facebook, PayPal, and how they represent real people, real money.
• Create a video, story, or invention together.
• Find ways to balance their video game time with online learning opportunities, such as Khan Academy and instructional YouTube videos.

Have more ideas? Share them below.

The message to inject truth and integrity into our digital footprint is a simple one. Yet,  the pressure to increase traffic, go viral, or acquire more “followers” is more often the motivation that drives our online presence.

His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, wrote an inspiring letter for the 45th World Communications Day, impelling the young to use the “unprecedented opportunities (of the digital age) for establishing relationships and building fellowship.” This relevant and timely message emphasizes that the new communications technologies can be used to serve the good of the individual and all of humanity.

Recognizing the challenges that young people face online, the pope asks them to “not give in to the illusion of constructing an artificial public profile of oneself.” And, reminds us to build an online presence that derives its worth through integrity, not popularity. To build a cyber space that offers nourishment, rather than a “fleeting attraction.” With the barrage of messages promoting the contrary, this is harder than it sounds.

Certainly, the need to grow popularity is a necessary component of successful online strategies. To ignore this fundamental fact of online business would mean certain failure. However, within this structure there are still plenty of opportunities to share authentic experiences that will build a kinder, more supportive cyber-environment.

In other words, we need to teach our kids a moral code in the “virtual” world that reflects  our “real” world expectations. Can we teach our kids to hold the door open in cyberspace? Hm. Yeah, I think we can. It’s time to start.

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Get all the handy tips and tidbits right in one spot! The next 26 to 50 tips will start in 2012.

#1 – Show You Care (About Video Games)

#2 – Filter What Your Kids Can See

#3 – No TV in the Bedroom

#4 – If You Have Nothing Nice to Post, Don’t Post Anything At All

#5 – Tell Your Kids the Cost of that Cell Phone

#6 – Get the Kids a Timer

#7 – Take the Kids to the Library

#8 – Get to Know the Video Game Consoles Before Buying

# 9 – Set Rules That Both Parents Can Support

# 10 – Review Before You Go to the Movies

#11 – Get to Know Facebook

#12 – Match Kids’ Screen Time with Active Time

#13 – Parents: Mind Your Own Screen Time

#14 – Interrupt Sitting Time with Movement

#15 – Prepare Your Kids for Gladvertising

# 16 – Update Kids’ Facebook Privacy Settings Regularly

#17 – Encourage Responsibility In Front of Camera and Behind Camera

#18 – Expose Your Kids to Khan Academy

#19 – Offer Guidance and Independence When Kids Research Online

#20 – No TV in the Mornings

#21 – Have the Talk, No Not THAT One, the Money Talk

#22 – Get Comfortable with Saying No

#23 – Talk Reality about the Effects of Reality TV

#24 – Beware of Too Much Free Time for Kids in Screen Time Culture

#25 – Teach Daughters AND Sons to be Critical of Female Portrayals in Media

We all sit on our butts too much these days. Between our office job, Googling, Facebooking, playing video games, and watching TV, few of us can complain that we don’t get enough opportunity to just sit and relax. This habit of parking our rears is apparent through all generations – from young to old. In fact, one of the biggest dangers of the internet and digital technology may be it’s negative effect on our health.

Here are some interesting statistics about the state of our health due to sedentary living, as compiled by U.S.-based organization Medical Billing and Coding:

• The average North American sits 9.3 hours per day (versus 7.7 hours of sleep);
• A person who sits more than six hours per day is up to 40% more likely to die within 15 years than someone who sits less than three hours;
• Those who sit three hours or more per day watching TV are 64% more likely to die from heart disease, and;
• Of those who watch three hours per day, those who exercise are no slimmer than those who don’t.

The solution to our life-shortening habits is, actually, quite simple. We need to turn off the TV, or whatever screen engages us most, and get off the couch. The Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines recommend kids include at least one hour of physical activity per day, and adults at least 2.5 hours per week. These may be helpful for some, but how many parents are actually keeping track of their kids’ activity? Probably very few. Rather than wringing hands over the amount of time kids are getting vigorous exercise, parents might be better off keeping track of how many hours their kids are sitting watching TV, YouTube videos, or playing video games. Less time in front of a screen will likely translate to more time on their feet.

There is a growing army of female warriors determined to battle the media’s assault on female empowerment and self-confidence. The likes of Miss Representation and Spark are two such inspiring grassroots organizations that campaign to stop the proliferation of degrading portrayals of women in movies, TV shows, ads, and more. I wholly applaud them because their words to North American females echo those I share with my own family. With one exception: I have sons.

As my oldest son leans toward his tween years, I feel a particular urgency to open his eyes to the inaccurate representations of women of which he is increasingly exposed.

The days of 24/7 Treehouse TV are long gone and YouTube viewing is slowly migrating into music video territory with movie preferences getting dicy.

While I understand that the campaign to fight negative female stereotypes is by-and-large a female issue, more emphasis needs to shift toward educating our boys to think critically about this issue. After all, some of the most offensive displays of women (think: helpless, “stupid”, barely dressed) are emblazoned in magazines and movies marketed directly to men. If we, as parents, are not teaching our boys that these images do not truthfully reflect the value of women, then I don’t believe the battle will as hard fought as it could be.

A couple of weeks ago, my 11-year-old son’s friend blurted that he was going to see the movie Jack and Jill. I’d just seen the commercial and had been struck by the degrading treatment of the “ugly” sister. (I know it’s supposed to be funny that she is played by Adam Sandler but the message isn’t: treat pretty girls well and ugly girls like garbage.)

My knee jerk response was to exclaim how awful the movie looked and to point out that is completely degrading to women. My son, used to this kind of talk, didn’t bat an eye but his friend looked at me like I’d just grown a horn out of the top of my head.

“I don’t like Adam Sandler movies,” I’d muttered as I cleared the dinner dishes. My son would not be thrilled if I’d stepped onto my soap box and lectured on the importance of critical thinking in front of his friend, so I left it at that. However, the experience helped me to realize that this issue of misrepresentation of women is relying almost completely on the shoulders of mothers and daughters, when it truly should be a battle shared by all. I, for one, am doing my part and I hope others join me.

Too much free time can be too much of a good thing according to a new study in the Applied Research in Quality of Life Journal that was recently covered in the National Post.  Findings (after questioning 1200 high school students) indicated that materialism and compulsive buying are a negative result of having an over-abundance of thumb-twiddling time (and perhaps an increase in screen time?) Boredom, it appears, does not always open doors to the imagination but can be a fuel for consumerism.

While this isn’t technically a “tech” tip for hair-pulling parents overburdened with the task of wrenching their children away from an animated rectangle (of various sizes), it is relevant given that most kids’ free time directly correlates to their screen viewing time. In my house, particularly, computer time is typically awarded after completion of certain tasks: homework, piano practice, emptying the trash, vows to be silent. In other words, when their time no longer is entrusted to adult-enforced regiments, they’re free to do as they wish. Unfortunately for most parents, today’s kids will often select an activity that involves a screen when they have nothing left to do.

This quick access to video is likely one of the culprits causing the unhappy results of too much free time for the modern adolescent. Boredom that translates into mindful activities such as reading books, playing ball in the park, or pursuing a hobby like jewellery-making or woodworking isn’t going to turn a kid into a perennial mall rat. However, if such activities are trumped by television viewing, surfing the web, or video gaming, the influence to conform according to the standards of advertisers, brands, and “cool kids” on sitcoms is ever-present. I have no intention of railing against the advertising machine, after all, they’re just trying to earn the profits they need to flourish as businesses.  As a parent, however, my bigger concern is my child’s happiness.  And, a screen that entertains is also a vehicle to pressure people to seek some retail therapy.  A kind of therapy, it turns out, we’d be better to live without.

While it’s not news that spending too much time in front of a screen is no recipe for happiness, parents should also consider just how much time their kids are spending doing, um, nothing. Filling some of that extra time with sports, clubs and lessons will actually make them happier. I guess I should pat myself on the back, then. I’d always thought that when my kids complained about all the time they spend practicing piano and doing homework was an indication of their misery when, in fact, they’re happy as can be. Now, if only I could convince them of that.