A 14-Year-Old Boy Took His Own Life to Get Closer to a Chatbot. He Thought They Were in Love. The Wall Street Journal, November 8, 2024 Sewell Setzer III, a 14-year-old boy in Orlando, Fla., was smitten with a fantasy woman. The object of his attachment was Daenerys Targaryen, a chatbot seducer named for a […]

TikTok Sued By 13 States And DC, Accused of Harming Younger Users Reuters, October 8, 2024 TikTok faces new lawsuits filed by 13 U.S. states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday, accusing the popular social media platform of harming and failing to protect young people. The lawsuits filed separately in New York, California, the […]

5 Charged with Laundering Money for Sextortion Scheme That Led to Michigan Teen’s Suicide Channel 4 News, August 2, 2024 17-year-old Jordan DeMay died from suicide after being blackmailed online. DeMay, 17, was a student at Marquette High School when Nigerian men contacted him on Instagram, pretending to be a girl. They convinced DeMay to […]

Worried About Your Tween’s Screen Time? Check Your Own, New Study Says. The Washington Post, June 17, 2024 For families who want to keep their tween children from spending too much time in front of screens, a new study offers illuminating advice: Parents, you’ll need to put your phones down first. The study, published this […]

A New Book Has Amplified Fierce Debate Around Teens, Mental Health And Smartphones NBC News, April 3, 2024 “We have overprotected children in the real world and under protected them in the virtual world. “Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s “The Anxious Generation,” argues that the smartphone-driven “great rewiring of childhood” is causing an “epidemic of mental […]