This is a pivotal year for children’s online safety and human rights. One important reason is the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s call for public comments to help it develop the first General Comment on the digital part of fulfilling children’s human rights. Those rights are extensive. There are 54 articles in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, falling into 3 categories labeled … [Read more...] about Digital youth: Honor ALL their rights
screen time
6 takeaways from 20 years of Net safety: Part 1
I usually write about other people's work – especially that of the researchers I've followed through the years. But now that I've just passed the 20-year mark in writing about youth and digital media (yikes!), I thought I'd share with you my own top takeaways as a participant observer of Internet safety's early years (1997-now). Here's Part 1 (Part 2 on this page): 1. A generalization about … [Read more...] about 6 takeaways from 20 years of Net safety: Part 1
About the AAP’s media guidelines for parents
The American Academy of Pediatrics has updated its guidance on screen time for families by de-emphasizing the term "screen time." The AAP's focus is now more on the "how" of media use than the "how much." "The key is mindful use of media within a family," the AAP's press release quoted Megan Moreno, MD, lead author of the Academy's policy statement for school-aged children and … [Read more...] about About the AAP’s media guidelines for parents
The real goal of unplugging
I love the parenthetical in the headline of "Five Ways to Break Your Kids’ Screen Addiction (and Yours, Too)," by Yahoo family tech columnist Dan Tynan. Because – if there's such a thing as screen addiction and it's not just something fashionable to (anxiously) joke about – what we model for our kids in our own use of phone and other screens has huge influence on them. [You've probably seen videos … [Read more...] about The real goal of unplugging
‘No negative impact’ from videogame play: Study
Contrary to what parents have heard about videogames, a UK study that followed the videogame play and TV viewing of more than 11,000 children for three years found that "exposure to videogames had no effect on [their] behavior, attention or emotional issues," reports New York-based GamesandLearning.org. The story was a little different with TV viewing, though. The University of Glasgow researchers … [Read more...] about ‘No negative impact’ from videogame play: Study