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 […]
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 […]
February 27, 2013
I have two kids, ages 7 and 2. My eldest is given access to the iPad on car trips and once in a while at home. My younger son likes to sit by his brother while he plays and of late, has been pointing to it and asking for it. There are some days when […]
December 27, 2012
Q: I am the mother of a 7-year-old girl who is a voracious reader. I have been considering buying her a no-frills e-Reader that doesn’t have games, video, or other features, but just allows you to read books. We are a minimal electronic media household–we don’t own a TV, and our girls (ages 4 and […]
December 10, 2012
Q: My 14-year-old daughter has been begging to get ‘Snapchat’ on her iPod Touch. I searched for information and I wasn’t initially impressed. I am tech savvy and know screen shots can easily be saved, but also, if she loses her device and someone else sends something, she could be held responsible. I don’t like […]
October 30, 2012
Q: I am mom to a 3-year-old and a newborn. I’m careful about the amount and content of my kids’ screen time. I occasionally try to find simple computer games for my toddler to develop keyboard and mouse skills, but I wonder if these skills will be relevant for her in the future. I’m starting […]
September 28, 2012
The Mediatrician® contributed to the following post on A Platform for Good, the Family Online Safety Institute's resource page and blog. Last winter, a father read an angry letter his 15-year-old daughter had posted on Facebook. In response, he put nine bullets into her laptop and posted the video online. Within weeks, it had garnered millions […]
September 27, 2012
Q: My 8-year-old son sees a lot of kids around him with iPods, iPads, video games, and phones, and keeps asking us for them. Even though we have explained that he doesn’t need all of these electronics and expose him to lots of other activities, the peer pressure is getting to him. What can I […]
September 7, 2012
Q: I found out that my 15-year-old daughter has a profile on a social network site where she has pornographic conversations with boys. Is this normal teenage behavior? How can I get through to her without driving her further into secrecy?
August 17, 2012
Q: My child is in third grade, and he’s already diagnosed with ADHD. He has a high IQ, is in honors classes, and is physically active—he’s a Gold-medal wrestler. He still uses media for too many hours each day, though. Given that he’s in good shape and gets good grades, how can I tell him […]
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