Credit union advises kids to use, not resist, technology

PRESS RELEASE
Westforce Credit Union
18 March 2013

Credit union advises kids to use, not resist, technology to help kids learn about money

It’s time for parents to both embrace and use their children’s obsession with games and the Internet by utilising technology as a tool for teaching children about money and other life skills.

Operations Manager at Westforce Credit Union, Mr Victor Martick, said parents might be better advised to stop resisting the dominance that technology has over the lives of their children, and to instead look for ways to achieve positive outcomes for all.

“A recent conversation between a parent and teacher had the parent expressing concern that his son was going to be using a tablet at school, because he would use it to play games.

“The teacher replied: ‘that’s what kids do’. Like schools, parents can use tablets, phones and computers to teach and motivate – by engaging children in their own technological environment.

“Technology is here to stay and our children are going to have to be very tech savvy if they want to survive in the future – keeping them from the computer does them no good. It’s here, it’s inevitable and it’s unstoppable.”

The inevitable role of technology in modern life, coupled to woeful money management skills in the broader population, prompted Westforce Credit Unionto make some contribution to changing the money habits of young New Zealanders.

As a result, Westforce Credit Union recently teamed up with the developers of ‘emagineIF’ – a new, free platform that helps kids with goal setting, teaches them to save money and also has a fun ‘chore and reward functionality’.

“The facility is free and it allows parents to set-up a dynamic chore chart, pay their kids for chores, set challenges and cultivate passions – all within a safe, fun online village called ‘emagineIF’.

“The fact is that chores can teach kids money skills and other lifelong disciplines such as the value of hard work, but getting children to comply is often a frustrating and thankless task. We believe ‘emagineIF’ will change all that,” he said.

“The first step begins with registering for this free service,” he said.

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