Kids, Media & Intimacy: What’s Love Got to Do With It?

Update Feb. 13, 2018 Related research and an excellent NYT read on the need for "porn literacy" given that teens exposure to online porn sites is distorting their lens of peer social norming, healthy … [Read more...]

Love Is Respect: Teen Texting Tools Aim To Dial Down Dating Abuse

Feb. 2, 2015 Update February marks the beginning of "Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month" and given the powerful PSA from "No More" on domestic violence in the Super Bowl yesterday that I wrote about … [Read more...]

Rachel Simmons Chats About Mythbusting “Mean Girl” Media

Aug. 31 2011 Transitioning back to school is tough, especially when media and marketing blitzes the ‘what could be’ fear dynamics of peer acceptance based on what you wear, how you look, and who you … [Read more...]

Spring Break Sanctuary: Ideas To Celebrate Screen Free Week

May 6, 2015 This year, "Screen Free Week" has been hardest on me for work related immediacy, as Twitter and 'livestreaming' events have made me feel like Gumby with people pinging and pushing their … [Read more...]

Spring Break Sanctuary: Away From Digital Dramas, Peer Reality Shows

Mar. 25, 2016 Just back from a 'spring break' social media hiatus reprising our unplugged trip to Catalina Island, albeit only day tripping vs a leisurely week away, as we tried to 'recreate' and … [Read more...]

Media Management: Addiction vs. Agency Part One

Jan. 11, 2010 I’m officially back from my one week blog hiatus, victorious in keeping my New Year resolution to ‘unplug’ more, manage my media rather than having it manage me, and slip away sans … [Read more...]

CyberBullying Tragedies and Internet Safety: eModeration Part3

Dec. 3, 2009 Just visited the excellent Connect Safely forum to pose the industry question, is there ANYthing that digital moderators or online advocates could’ve done in the child safety realm to … [Read more...]

GOOG-411: What’s The Number? Where Is It? Now, Get Oriented FREE

June 1, 2009 “One moment, I’ll connect you” used to rack up price-gouging mobile 411 charges in the double digits before GOOG-411 came along. Kids calling for a pizza can pop an extra $1.50 or two … [Read more...]

Text Monster: Teen Tips On Digital Dating Obsessions

April 28, 2009 "Whatcha doin’? Who you with? Text me! Text me back!" When does 'caring' become controlling textual harrassment? What happens when the ‘connectivity’ that takes the form of digital … [Read more...]

Will 2009 Uncover Price Fixing On the Backs of Texting Teens?

I don’t know about you, but this week's NYTimes article "What Carriers Aren't Eager to Tell You About Texting" written by local SJSU professor Randall Stross has me wanting to text him an … [Read more...]

Money Management for Kids: Chores, Allowance & Digital Nagging

Part Two of our interview with PAYjr CEO David Jones includes one of the rarely used aspects of PAYjr's chore and allowance program (only 5% evidently) where parents can set up cell phone reminders … [Read more...]

Amy Jussel On Kids’ Media Management and Childhood Matters

Why ‘Amy Jussel’ instead of ‘Shaping Youth’ in the headline today? Because this time it’s personal…That’s mama code for ‘don’t do as I do, do as I say’ on the media management front from my own … [Read more...]

8-8-08 Beijing Olympics: Using New Media With Decorum

My eco-minded ‘one world, one dream' brother was married on 8-8-88 at 8:08, and though he’s not Chinese, he’s well aware that many people in China believe in the good fortune of … [Read more...]