INSTAGRAM PUSHES DRUG CONTENT TO TEENS
By By Olivia Solon and Zoe Schiffer, NBC News, December 2021
“Instagram is pushing drug-related content to teen accounts, according to research by the watchdog group Tech Transparency Project (TTP). While the company has pledged to crack down on drug sales, it continues to suggest hashtags related to buying illegal substances to children as young as 13, the research shows.”
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SNAPCHAT, TIKTOK, YOUTUBE LEADERS TO FACE LAWMAKERS ABOUT CHILD SAFETY
By The Associated Press, NPR, October, 2021
WASHINGTON — Bearing down on hugely popular social media platforms and their impact on children, the leaders of a Senate panel have called executives from YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat to face questions on what their companies are doing to ensure young users’ safety.”
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MORE THAN 1 IN 3 TEENS SAY SNAPCHAT IS THEIR FAVORITE SOCIAL MEDIA APP
By Tommy Beer, Forbes, October, 2021
“Snapchat is the favorite social media platform among teenagers in the United States and is still growing in popularity, while Facebook’s usage is minimal among teens, according to a new poll from Piper Sandler, which surveyed 10,000 young Americans with an average age of 15.8 years.”
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FACEBOOK PUTS INSTAGRAM KIDS ON HOLD AMID CRITICISM OF PLANNED APP
By Reuters, September 2021
“Instagram Kids had been touted as requiring parental permission to join, and was supposed to provide ad-free, age-appropriate content, but U.S. lawmakers and advocacy groups have urged the social media giant to drop its launch plans, citing safety concerns.”
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DIGITAL SELF-HARM: WHAT TO DO IF KIDS CYBERBULLY THEMSELVES
By Julie Fraga, The Washington Post, February 2021
“Though it may sound far-fetched to parents who didn’t grow up on social media, social scientists are now devoting research to the practice they’re calling ‘self-cyberbullying’ or “digital self-harm,” in which social media users set up fake accounts and use those accounts to post mean comments about themselves.”
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By Leah Asmelash, CNN, November 2020
“If you’re worried about your kids’ mental health, particularly because of the Covid-19 pandemic and social distancing mandates, less screen time and more extracurricular activities will help, says a new study.”
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YOUNG PEOPLE ARE EXPOSED TO MORE HATE ONLINE DURING COVID
By Joanne Orlando, The Conversation, November 2020
“People can be exposed to hate speech directly, or witness it between others. And one study, which analyzed millions of websites, popular teen chat sites and gaming sites, found children were exposed to much higher levels of online hate during the pandemic than before it.”
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I WAS A SCREEN-TIME EXPERT. THEN THE CORONAVIRUS HAPPENED.
By Anya Kamenetz, The New York Times, July 2020
An author reflects on her pre-pandemic pronouncements about children’s technology use and offers new advice, like focus on feelings, not screens.
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By Rachel Ehmke, Child Mind Institute, June 2020
“If kids aren’t getting enough practice relating to people and getting their needs met in person and in real time, many of them will grow up to be adults who are anxious about our species’ primary means of communication—talking.”
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SUMMER ACTIVITIES FOR TEENS (THAT DON’T INVOLVE A SCREEN)
By Joyce Mabe, ADDitute magazine, June 2020
“Summer has officially started, but if you’re like most parents of teens with ADHD, you already wish that school is back in session. Although school days have their own stress and worries, at least the kids are occupied during the day instead of laying around, being lazy, making messes, fighting with each other, and eating you out of house and home.”
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NEEDING ATTENTION & CRYING FOR HELP ON SOCIAL MEDIA
By Delaney Ruston, MD, Screenagersmovie.com, May 2020
“I will never forget when Tessa was in seventh grade, and she had an iPod at the time. One night she came into my room and showed me a close-up photo of a girl’s mouth open with many pills on her tongue. Tessa told me this was someone she was friendly with at school, and this girl had just posted this for a small group of people to see.”
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THE DANGERS OF TIKTOK’S NUTMEG CHALLENGE EXPLAINED: WHY ARE TEENS INHALING A SPICE?
By Ella Kipling, HITC, April 2020
“Teens have taken to TikTok to film themselves getting high off of nutmeg. Yes, you heard me right, nutmeg.”
“The videos show users how to join in, but the comments warn of dangerous side effects and health problems caused by this challenge. “
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FROM THE FRONT LINES OF EMPATHY
Tech Talk Tuesdays, Screenagers, March 2020
“Tessa’s school shut down for six weeks (or longer), and now my son’s college is off — probably for the rest of the year. Chase will have classes online, but Tessa has no assigned school work because of equity issues.”
“Meanwhile, I hear daily from parents, whose kids and teens are now off from school, that they are more stressed than ever about screen time.”
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By Maria Cramer and Gal Tziperman Lotan, The Boston Globe, November 2019
“The prosecution of a former Boston College student who is accused of driving her boyfriend to suicide with tens of thousands of sometimes abusive messages highlighted the social challenges many young people face in an age of compulsive communication — how to maintain healthy boundaries when the text exchanges rarely stop, intruding on their time at home, at meals, even when they’re asleep.”
VIDEO from Operation Parent
“Cyberbullying. Parents, this could be an issue your child is dealing with today. Warning signs and practical “next steps” are shared in this video. Be informed. They need you.”
Screenagers
An article with tips and strategies on how to help our youth manage and prevent wasted time on digital devices, and how it the lost time can be harmful.
HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA, ACCORDING TO A MENTAL HEALTH EXPERT
Six tips from a psychologist for coping with the negative impacts of social media use, which research has linked to social isolation, loneliness, and depression.
ONLINE HOMEWORK-THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE
Screenagers
“When your child’s homework assignment is online it can be an immense challenge for them to stay on task.”
“They can be experiencing a host of uncomfortable feelings related to their school work, such as a sense of “why do I need to learn this anyway,” or frustration of an overly challenging problem set or the stress of having to write about a topic they are not interested in, or they are just plain bored.”
THINGS I WISH I HAD KNOWN BEFORE GIVING KIDS A CELL PHONE
By Becky Mansfield, Your Modern Family, December 2019
“Giving your child a phone opens up a whole new world, and it comes with a lot of trial and error, on the part of the child & parent, until you get to the place where you are both comfortable with the way things are working.”
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