How to help the alleged digital native become a true native1. Parental control programs are useless
I know: they're very effective at blocking children's access to digital content that's inappropriate for their age, or undesirable. But they don't work. First, because it's impossible to install parental controls on all the devices within reach of the child, who probably uses your own smartphone the most to begin with (that of their father, mother, or older sibling). Second, because if you don't want them to access inappropriate content, the only truly valid thing is for you to be with them , next to them, or behind them, when they use the internet, playing and accompanying them. And third, because I believe it's better for them to learn to detect and identify when content is inappropriate , and have the confidence to warn you and tell you about it. Because it's important for them to understand as soon as possible that certain internet content is not appropriate, and therefore, should not only be consulted and consumed: above all, should not be generated . Sit down with them. Browse with them. Teach them to discriminate.
And that's what we need to encourage. You can record mini stop-motion movies with their toys on Vine, tell stories with images and create collages on Instagram, prepare choreographies on Musical.ly, transform photos and videos with VivaVideo. Not to mention phone number library that before that, children have had to cover their fingers with hand paint, play with paintbrushes, tell made-up stories, and I don't know how many other things. Creative ability can't be improvised; new technologies are just another tool.
No, children should not be able to directly download any apps they want: an adult must download them (and control the download passwords), install them on the mobile device (without a data plan, only with a Wi-Fi connection), and supervise account creation, privacy settings.