May 29, 2013
Q: We are a homeschooling family who has decided to exclude media from our daughters’ lives until they turn 7. Our daughters have never watched TV and have never seen an advertisement, movie, YouTube clip, etc. Our eldest is turning seven in June, and we want to introduce her to media though a media literacy […]
May 25, 2013
Q: Over the past year, my 16-year-old son has become more and more addicted to Internet role playing sites. My son has ADHD and has always had a hyper focusing problem, but not on anything that would prevent him from his school work. He started out playing the games casually, but over time they have become […]
May 10, 2013
Q: What is the consequence of watching the same Sesame Street movie over and over? It's Sesame Street and it's a movie, and it's only about 1 hour long. So it's not TV, it's not computer, it's not passive. We watch it together and we interact throughout it, with singing and dancing along. My daughter […]
May 2, 2013
Q: My 12-year-old daughter is devastated by what has been happening with Justin Bieber. She has been a fan of the pop star “forever” and she and her friends fervently follow his career and personal life. I originally supported my daughter’s obsession (allowing her to buy his music, hang posters in her bedroom, attend a […]
April 30, 2013
Q:The Manti Te’o “catfish” story makes me wonder how I can best prepare my teens for future online friendships. My teens say that kids meet through friends-of-friends online and off, but online they just lie about personal information. I’ve always thought that practicing strong communication skills, honesty, integrity, and trust would help my kids grow […]
April 18, 2013
Q: My 10-year-old daughter had a sleepover with 3 friends. It turns out that one of the girls brought a smartphone and pulled up some porn. My daughter is still quite traumatized by what she saw, and my husband and I are trying to figure out how to counsel her. The girls saw three explicitly pornographic […]
April 17, 2013
Dear Readers, Our hearts hurt after Monday's explosions at the Boston Marathon. The pain and shock in our community is palpable, and it’s hard to know where to go from here. But there is also a remarkable upsurge of help and love that sprang out of the shadow of this event. The Center on Media […]
April 12, 2013
Q: I just saw that you published a study about childhood obesity and watching TV. From the article I read, it sounds like kids who watch TV and commercials for high-calorie foods are more likely to be obese—but that playing video games and using the computer aren’t a problem. Does this mean I should limit […]
April 3, 2013
Q: My 11-year-old son spends every free minute in front of his computer—doing homework (he really does, thank goodness), social networking, playing games, and now creating his own games. Concerned that, one by one, he has dropped sports, playing with friends, getting outdoors, and, frankly, spending time with the family, I have struggled (and been […]
March 21, 2013
Q: I am trying to monitor my 12-year-old daughter’s use of Instagram and am wondering if there is a way to find any ‘secret storage’ spaces on her smartphone. I am not too concerned right now, but in the future I would like to know how to access it. Instagram is the only social media platform […]
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