Caregivers are inundated with guidance about screen time. Some of it helps families find firm footing; much of it is conflicting, oversimplified, or untethered from the latest developmental science. It’s no wonder parents feel tired and eager for clarity. On our most exhausted days, we just want someone to tell us what to do. At… Read More →
“How is that allowed?” my middle schooler asked me recently. My son had just learned that Elon Musk’s AI chatbot and image generator, Grok, was being used within X to “undress” existing images of people online. We had already talked about nudify and “undressing” apps (add this to the growing list of awkward but essential… Read More →
“I am just so tired. It feels like a full-time job,” a parent shared with me recently, describing the constant work of managing parental controls and online risks. “Yeah,” I replied. “You aren’t alone. Most of these platforms aren’t designed with our kids’ wellbeing in mind, and we’ve largely outsourced responsibility to parents and kids.… Read More →
When our kids are little, we get a lot of data about their lives. We know their friends, what they ate for lunch, and which show they want to watch on repeat. I remember sometimes wishing for less data when my youngest’s preferred safety spot was in my lap, facing me, with both hands clutching… Read More →
I watched the hit Netflix series Adolescence with two hats on. As a professional, the online misogyny wasn’t new. I’ve written about online extremism before. But as a parent, with a kid the same age (and freckles) as the main character sleeping upstairs, the show hit me differently. My son, like all teens, is actively… Read More →
“If you could design your own digital spaces, what would they look like?” I recently posed this question to a group of young people. As adults, it’s easy to focus on what we don’t like about the online world. It’s also easy to assume that we see the harms clearly while young people remain thoughtlessly… Read More →
Sometimes it’s hard to observe transformative changes in real-time. We tend to look back and think, “Ah, that was when everything started to change.” When I set up my first “Friendster” account, it certainly felt new and exciting. I thought carefully about which songs and photos best represented “me” for my little corner of the… Read More →
“I wasn’t surprised that my kid looked at inappropriate content online. I know it comes with the territory,” a parent recently confided. “What upset me more is that he lied about it.” “This is always so tricky,” I sympathized. “We only see a little snapshot of what is going on. And it can be hard… Read More →
I can still remember the poster hanging in my fourth-grade classroom. Against the backdrop of a star-studded night sky, a comet blazed across the image accompanied by text that read, “You can be a star!” As a child of the eighties, I grew up during the self-esteem movement. Posters, programs, and books consistently communicated, “‘If… Read More →
To say that there is a lot of attention right now on teenage social media use is an understatement. Yet all of the attention hasn’t necessarily produced a clear and coherent path for parents. Instead, we continue to experience significant whiplash between headlines that say, “Screen time is fine!” on one hand, and, “Screen time… Read More →
