Internet & Social Media

Stranger Danger in the 21st Century We published an article recently called “Guns, Suicide, and Teens,” in which we talk about a disturbing threat to teenagers – teenage boys in particular – known as “sextortion.” We realize that word sounds like made-up internet slang, but it’s not. It’s used in official press releases by serious government agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), so we know it’s real.

News Headlines Highlight the Risks: We Examine the Evidence Over the past ten years, parents have worried that screen time and social media use are harmful to their children’s development. For parents who grew up without smartphones and the internet, it’s an easy position to take. The way kids, tweens, and teens spend their spare time now is quite different than the way a child of the 70s or 80s

Do Cell Phones Make Teens Lonely? If you’re the parent of a teen, you’ve probably seen a constant stream of headlines over the past year and a half about teen mental health. The consensus is that we’re in the midst of what laypeople and professionals alike label a teen mental health crisis. These headlines started before the pandemic arrived – and they weren’t wrong. Plenty of evidence to backed up