WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THIS GRAYSCALE STUFF?

Some of us love black and white movies, but today, the vast majority of movies are made in full, bright, robust color.  Why?  Because, duh, colors stimulate us and on the big screen this is just plain VIBRANCY.  But what about on little screens?

When we think about iPhones and iPads, we may not always want or need that vibrancy.

Think of it this way: would your child find his favorites cartoons VIBRANT if they were in black or white?  Or what about your daughter’s favorite TikTok videos? Or your son’s favorite Minecraft gamer explaining something on YouTube?  I think we can all agree, that using grayscale will reduce some of the vibrancy and perhaps some of the attraction.

Not convinced? A few brave souls have tried living the grayscale life and reported back.

•  “My smartphone usage plummeted overnight when I activated grayscale mode.
• If you want to use parts of your phone in color,...

I won’t give you a lecture on what age is the appropriate age for purchasing a mobile phone for your child, but I will point you to a fantastic resource where you can ask yourself the following questions posed by Common Sense Media:

• Are your kids pretty independent?
• Do your children need to be in touch for safety reasons?
• Would having easy access to friends benefit them for social reasons?
• Do you think they’ll use a cell phone responsibly  – for example, not texting during class or disturbing others with their phone conversations?
• Can they adhere to limits you set for minutes talked and apps downloaded?
• Will they use the text, photo, and video functions responsibly and not to embarrass or harass others? (Source: Common Sense Media)

Once you decide that your child is ready for a cell phone, you need to educate yourself and your child and ensure that “protection” and “phone” go together.

Read up on mobile phone safety tips to keep your...

AUTHOR: Katherine Fitzgerald, Law student University of Paris 8

Let’s face it – advertising is everywhere – on radio, television, posters, and unfortunately the Internet. We all know how annoying it is to try and navigate through the web and be constantly blasted with suggestive (and more frequently explicit) pop-ups. Nowadays they are never ending and crude, repetitive and distasteful.

Whilst we are sometimes shocked or irritated by such pop-ups we are (unfortunately) no longer surprised by them. The same cannot be said of our children. Pop-ups are indiscriminate and will appear whoever is behind the screen – as such adverts with pornographic images are almost unavoidable to any child ‘surfing the internet’.

On a personal note, being sick of those images popping up on my computer screen, I was advised to download a free ‘adblocker’ program that acts as a filter on my search engine, blocking all pop-ups from appearing (and sparing me...