The Screenagers Blog

tech talk tuesdays

A survey in the UK reveals that 3 of the 4 most popular social media platforms had a net negative effect on the mental well-being of young people.

tech talk tuesdays

Remember Andrew from Screenagers? The college student who struggled with an addiction to video gaming. We recently checked in with him to find out how he has been and what he is up to today.

tech talk tuesdays

Who ever thought that we would be living in a world where porn would just pop up unannounced on our screens? Porn is just a click away for so many of our kids and I strongly believe that we as parents need is to start talking about inappropriate media sooner rather than later. But what do you say and at what age?

tech talk tuesdays

Let’s face it—our kids are exposed to lots of media that is pure junk. So how do we expose kids to media that has positive messages but is not overly sappy? In my view, I think documentaries make for great media. Here's ten you and your kids can watch.

tech talk tuesdays

I hear from many pre-teen and teen girls that they or their friends have been asked by boys via social media to send nude pics. It is imperative that we try to have conversations with our sons and daughters about the pressures, internal and external, of looking “hot” and sending “hot” photos. We need to arm girls with ways to respond to pressures.

tech talk tuesdays

I just got back from a 3-week vacation with Meleah, my 13-year-old. She is a social teen who likes to “talk” to her friends via Snapchat, Facetime, and Instagram frequently. A week before we left she said: “Mom, I think I’m going to leave my iPhone at home.” I played it cool and just asked why. She said she needed a break. So, we went old school and turned it back to 2004.

tech talk tuesdays

School may be out, but summer reading is just heating up. I often get asked by kids in Screenagers’ audiences whether reading on an e-reader counts as screen time. While a screen is a screen, I highly encourage kids to read, whether it’s paper or electronic.

tech talk tuesdays

We've all lost track of time when using our phones. So many parents, myself included, want to make sure the screen time limits we've set are being followed by ourselves and our children. Luckily for us, there are several apps out there designed to manage screen time limits so we don't always have to.

tech talk tuesdays

I received a few emails this week about the appropriate age to buy a young person a smartphone. Data shows that younger and younger kids are getting smartphones —what is too young?

tech talk tuesdays

If your child’s life has included a Minecraft phase, you know what I’m talking about. There’s the beginner level of the game that you play, walking from place to place collecting resources for survival, and there are the deeper levels, that can include creating entire neighborhoods to programming your own action sequences and building tools that you make available to other players.

tech talk tuesdays

I am upset. Yesterday my teenage son Chase showed me the Discover feature on Snapchat. The Discover feature grabs content from a variety of sources — Cosmopolitan, Buzzfeed, CNN among many others and makes it accessible to anyone, including our kids. But what makes me so mad is that there is no way to remove or block the Discover Story feature on the app. So what do we do?

tech talk tuesdays

Last week, Harvard rescinded the acceptances of 10 incoming freshmen for posting racist, sexually offensive material on Facebook. As intense as the consequence may seem, this is an important reminder that nothing on the web is private, even private chat groups.

tech talk tuesdays

In the past couple of months, I visited schools where the teachers talked to me about concerns over kids and cell phones during field trips.

tech talk tuesdays

When I visit schools across the country, I am consistently surprised that students, parents and even teachers are frequently unsure of the cell phone policies at their school. Wouldn't it be great if we had data on how often middle schools allow students to have cell phones with them all day? And wouldn’t it be great if we knew what policies parents want?

tech talk tuesdays

One of the most interesting screenings of Screenagers was at a conference for addiction professionals. Did you know that about 1% of the U.S. population has a gambling disorder? It is almost double that in Hong Kong.

tech talk tuesdays

I strongly believe that one of the most powerful aspects of Tech Talk Tuesday is starting the discussion with something positive about the tech in our lives. If we really want to have effective dialogue that creates a lasting tech balance with our kids, we need to talk about the positives too. Believe me, your kids will want to hear this week’s TTT.

tech talk tuesdays

As Mother’s Day approaches I have been thinking about my mom and her support over the years, and I am also thinking of non-family important women who have also helped me when I was growing up. I call these women Mentor Moms.

tech talk tuesdays

A new study being presented this week at the 2017 Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting found that tablet and smartphone use by babies and toddlers correlates with a speech delay.