Have you ever considered making the car a screen-free zone? Two years ago my family decided to make the car a screen-free zone and great conversations have emerged because of this rule.
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What if all pediatricians in the country have signs in the waiting room that said something like the following: "For children’s development, having times off screens is important. This doctor’s office is a ‘screen-free zone’ for kids."
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The average high school starts at 7:59 AM, with some starting as early as 7:00 AM. Studies show lack of sleep affects our teens well being. Now, many schools are shifting their start times.
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A principal in Washington DC challenged her 8th & 9th graders to forgo any type of screen time every Tuesday throughout the whole summer in exchange for $100.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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