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Tweens

How do I help my 14-year-old cope with the Aurora movie theater shooting?
 How do I help my 14-year-old cope with the Aurora movie theater shooting? 150 150 Mediatrics

Q: My 14 year old son has been anticipating the release of the new Batman movie ever since he saw the trailer last year. He pre-ordered his tickets for opening weekend and was all set to go with friends when he heard about the theater shooting at the midnight showing in Aurora Colorado. The news…

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How can I help my son limit computer time when he says he can’t resist?
 How can I help my son limit computer time when he says he can’t resist? 150 150 Mediatrics

Q: My 10-year-old son plays mostly role-playing games, and has a 90-minute screen time limit per day. Overall he’s a great kid—does well in school, is active in sports, has plenty of friends—but we have limited his screen time as a consequence for poor behavior, which is mostly related to abusing screen time limits. He…

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How can parents make the internet a safe place to play?
 How can parents make the internet a safe place to play? 150 150 Mediatrics

Q: With kids of all ages using the internet for everything from socializing to finding information to playing games, how can we keep them as safe as they can be in that world? -Net Nervous A: Dear Net Nervous, You’re right–just like the school playground, the internet is a place where children play, learn, and…

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How can I tell if an e-book is appropriate for my 10-year-old?
 How can I tell if an e-book is appropriate for my 10-year-old? 150 150 Mediatrics

Q: With the purchase of a couple of e-book tablets for our home, how can we know if the books our 10-year-old triplets will be reading on them are age appropriate? My daughter read a book she heard about in her 4th grade class during a book report, and it ended up having significant sexual…

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Should I use the movie “Bully” to talk about bullying with my 10 year old?
 Should I use the movie “Bully” to talk about bullying with my 10 year old? 150 150 Mediatrics

Q: My 10-year-old son will be starting middle school in the fall. So far, he has had a pretty sheltered, drama-free experience at a great elementary school. I want him to be aware that bullying goes on and that he needs to tell someone if anything like that ever happens to him. I have thought…

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What can I do for my 15-year-old son, who has Asperger’s and ADHD and seems addicted to video games?
 What can I do for my 15-year-old son, who has Asperger’s and ADHD and seems addicted to video games? 150 150 Mediatrics

Q: My son is 15 and displays symptoms of video game addiction, including lying and sneaking to try to gain access. He has Asperger’s and ADHD, and regardless of what medication regimen we try, the gaming obsession remains. I recently asked the psychiatrist to hospitalize him and treat him as they would other addicts, but…

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My 17-year-old is having serious anxiety since he started playing Call of Duty–is there a connection?
 My 17-year-old is having serious anxiety since he started playing Call of Duty–is there a connection? 150 150 Mediatrics

Q: My 17-year-old son started playing Call of Duty a few months ago. Since that time, he has had more trouble than usual falling asleep and has been waking up in the middle of the night. Last night, he woke me saying he felt like he was having a panic attack—racing heart and hyperventilation. I…

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Ratings Reality: Who rates our media and what that means for children
 Ratings Reality: Who rates our media and what that means for children 150 150 Mediatrics

CMCH staff member Kristelle Lavallee contributed the following post to Thriving, Boston Children’s Hospital’s pediatric health blog. Are you looking to take the family to a movie but aren’t sure whether your child should see The Hunger Games (PG-13) or Bully (unrated)? If you base the decision on the Motion Picture Association of American (MPAA) ratings, the answer…

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How can I encourage parents to be involved in their kids’ online lives?
 How can I encourage parents to be involved in their kids’ online lives? 150 150 Mediatrics

Q: My 16-year-old goddaughter’s parents are not Facebook friends with her, so when someone stole her phone and posted some degrading things to her account, they didn’t know until I told them. Another friend asked me to look at all her 19-year-old daughter’s pictures and let her know if I saw anything inappropriate. How can…

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Is The Hunger Games movie too scary for younger fans of the book?
 Is The Hunger Games movie too scary for younger fans of the book? 150 150 Mediatrics

The movie The Hunger Games opens today, and record tickets sales are expected to make the post-apocalyptic survival tale one of the spring’s biggest blockbusters. But just because your child has read The Hunger Game books, does that mean she’s ready to watch it on the big screen?

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