Page 199 - Resources and Support for the Online Educator

Household Guidelines • Chapter 7

The 24-Hour Rule

Before we discuss some guidelines and ideas for creating them, I want to
mention an idea that a few parents I’ve been working with recently have
deployed in their house with some success. It is actually a process very similar
to what the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) puts in place for their
air traffic controllers. Whenever a mistake is made or a potential mishap is
avoided, the FAA puts in place a 24-hour rule of protection for the person
making the mistake. What this means is that if someone makes a mistake
but then reports it within 24 hours, they will be free of traditional punish-
ment. The rationale behind this rule is that if people share and learn from the
mistake, it will make all other air traffic controllers more aware and respon-
sive, potentially avoiding major disasters down the road.
In the case of our kids, we can deploy a similar rule. Kids will make mistakes
in life whether it be virtual or real. We want them to learn from their mistakes
but can’t help them if they hide them from us. Having a rule of 24-hour
protection to report an inappropriate finding or action encourages our kids
to talk to us about things they come across and also learn from their mistakes
before making potentially greater mistakes down the road. Here’s a scenario:

Stumbling across Inappropriate Material Scenario

While doing research for a project on rainforests, your 10-year-old does an
image search for “rain” which inexplicably brings up images of a partially
nude night club dancer who goes by the same name.

Without the 24-hour rule:
Your child is somewhat curious about the photos but also knows they
shouldn’t be looking at them. Rather than tell you, they continue to look
through the web and click on links that turn out to be spam. A few days later,
their computer becomes infected, at which point they confess to what they
were doing and hand you a hefty computer repair bill.

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