I spoke a lot about cell phones + social media with kids in my stories this week and many of you had some awesome show/podcast suggestions on the topic. I will list them out below in case you are interested in doing a deeper dive!

First + foremost, huge kudos to Lush Cosmetics for deleting all their social media accounts because they want to reemphasize the extreme effects it has on our preteen + teen population.

How to Matter in Middle School | This is a wonderful article to read with your child and to break it down with them! Highly recommend.

Protect Young Eyes – an account that goes into depth about online protection for our kids. You can take a quick assessment to see if your home internet is safe. If you do not have social media – they have a website here! They have an awesome post on how to get your district on the same page with cell phones and how to keep them out of our schools.

A look behind the scenes of someone creating a pre-teen account with snapchat and what they were exposed to – it’s appalling.

Podcast: Sharon Says So on The Good Inside with Dr. Becky on Preparing Kids for Social Media

Podcast + Article: Teens are Developing Tics. Doctors Say TikTok May Be a Factor

Roo Powell is a 37 year old mom and went undercover as a 11 year old girl online and this is what she found (it’s horrifying). Roo then went on to create her own series on Discover+ called Undercover Underage and it’s on my must watch list now! 

Every single school should require the use of the Yondr pouch (thank you for telling me about these!) How can we petition to get these into schools?!

The dangerous experiment on young girls | a fantastic article from The Atlantic on how social media has affected Gen-Z (especially girls) and some practical ways to fix it.

For teens, navigating the mental health pitfalls of Instagram is part of everyday life | an article from the Washington Post that was a good read

Ron’s Gone Wrong | A children’s movie that has a great point about social media use. Someone suggested it to me so I am excited to watch it with our kids! 

Childhood 2.0 |  Put together by protect young eyes – Childhood 2.0 is required viewing for anyone who wants to better understand the world their children are navigating as they grow up in the digital age. Featuring actual parents and kids as well as industry-leading experts in child safety and development, this documentary dives into the real-life issues facing kids today — including cyberbullying, online predators, suicidal ideation, and more.

TED talk: Why Our Screens Are Making Us Less Happy – 9 minutes long and worth the listen!

Tessa Stuckey is a mom of four, therapist, parent coach, author and speaker. She is passionate about our youth mental health, suicide prevention and navigating parenting in today’s tech-filled world. I have been talking about the harms of social media so much lately and Tessa was a great addition to this conversation. As a therapist to teenagers, she provides insightful research that proves screen time and social media do more harm than good to mental health and brain development. Some of the information she provided was truly shocking and I hope some of you will join me in living a life with less screens. Show notes here and listen here!

Cool apps + tech related products:

Canopy | a new safety app that helps keep children safer online. Blocks 99% of pornography online and can prevent sexting by detecting and inappropriate text before it is sent.

Bark | Parental control tool that helps parents monitor their children’s phones

Pinwheel | A kids phone that has no access to the internet or social media. It has it’s own set of healthy apps on it only and gives you full access

Gabb Wireless | This one is the best one in my opinion if you are thinking of getting a phone for your teen.