A couple of years ago, I attended a luncheon where a counselor from ReStart spoke about internet addiction. ReStart is a clinic here in Washington that specializes in treating internet addiction, video game addiction and phone over use. For a while now, I had this half-written post on internet addiction kicking around in my folder.…
Last week, I updated my parenting guides and invited readers to contact me with questions about apps. The next day, I received an email from a parent about musical.ly. I immediately downloaded and played around with it. After cruising around musicaly.ly, I am not surprised parents have questions. Musical.ly profiles are public and full of young faces. If…
Facebook used to be a child’s first social network. What was great about Facebook was that most parents were already on that network. Parents could easily check in on their kids by friending them or touring their Facebook feed. Today, most kids are bypassing Facebook and jumping on to Instagram or even Snapchat. With these other…
Sitting down together and drafting a phone contract is the best way for families to share values and expectation around appropriate online behavior. Most digital parenting organizations have their own phone contract template (including me). If you have not found the right one for your family, I have a fantastic digital tool that may help.…
One of the challenges for parents and teens is keeping up with all the new features added to apps. A year ago, a parent may have agreed to a simple photo sharing social network. Flash forward a year later and that same app now allows users to share videos and send direct messages. Kik messenger has…
Happy Earth Day! Today, April 22, is Earth Day’s 45th anniversary. For 45 years, people have come together to help our planet by supporting environmental programs, cleaning up their neighborhoods or living a more sustainable lifestyle. This year, I have 5 earth-friendly apps to celebrate Earth Day. Download these apps today to discover how to transform a water bottle into…
According to researchers at Penn State, when it comes to privacy management, adults and teens think very differently. While most adults think first and then ask questions, teens tend to take the risk and then seek help. Unfortunately, the privacy settings on many apps are initially set at the most lenient level. While teens prefer to…
Most of my blog posts focus on teens and what they are doing online. With touchscreens and tablets, younger and younger kids are playing in the digital world. Like the real world, there are places in the digital world where you do not want your kids hanging out. How do parents allow young kids the freedom to…
Kids love online games and many games allow players to message one another. In both, Trivia Crack and Clash of Clans, kids can send messages back and forth just like texting. Recently, I received a question about turning this feature off in Clash of Clans. On most games, players cannot turn off messaging but some allow players to…
A few weeks ago, I had chance to talk with elementary school parents about internet safety. It was a great evening and a chance for me to discover what problems young kids were encountering in the digital world. One of the concerns that came up was scary chain emails. These chain emails usually start with a frightening story and end with “if…
