The Washington Times – Tuesday, July 16, 2024, by Sean Salai Worried parents have been keen to send their children to school with cellphones ever since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and mass shootings ushered in the new millennium. Now, public officials complain that students are using smartphones more for cyberbullying, video games and pornography […]
Liz was recently featured on the Safety Is Sexy podcast discussing how to help young people get safe and savvy online. “Thanks for the opportunity to express our thoughts on ‘Sexy Online Safety” 😊 (Don’t worry – the podcast is rated G!)”, says Liz. Listen and learn all about a myriad of topics from what […]
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 […]
How A Connecticut Middle School Won The Battle Against Cellphones The Washington Post, May 1, 2024 What unfolded at Illing Middle School in Manchester, Connecticut reflects a broader struggle underway in education as some administrators turn to increasingly drastic measures to limit the reach of a technology that is both ubiquitous and endlessly distracting. Scores of schools […]
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 […]
What Students Are Saying About the C.D.C. Report on Teen Sadness New York Times, March 2, 2024 Teenagers reported record levels of sadness in the most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the recently released survey, which was given to 17,000 adolescents at high schools […]
The goal of monitoring kids’ technology use is to both ensure their safety AND build their skills toward self-protection and self-regulation when they are online. To this end, the goal is not to ‘catch’ them doing something wrong. Rather, we want them to learn what poor online behavior is while encouraging and discussing what positive […]
High School Students Walk Out Over Cellphone Ban Newsweek, Feb 9, 2024 Students at a high school in Texas are protesting a new cellphone ban. Hundreds of students gathered outside James Madison High School in South Houston. Some held signs that read “We are high school kids not cellmates!!!” and “You are not here to […]
Meta Adds New Teen Safety Features Following Renewed Criticism CNN, January 7, 2024 Meta recently announced that it is expanding its youth safety efforts by rolling out new settings for teenage Facebook and Instagram users, including content restrictions and hiding search results for terms related to self-harm and suicide. This is in an effort aimed […]
200 groups push Senate to vote on Kids Online Safety Act in 2024 NBC News, December 6, 2023 More than 200 organizations sent a letter urging Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to schedule a vote on the Kids Online Safety Act first thing in January when Congress reconvenes. The bill known as KOSA, which was reintroduced in […]