Picking up teens from pro-social activities is modern day dilemma for most suburban parents. Uber and Lyft has become the go to option for parents that prioritize their conference call over picking up their teenagers from practice. Uber was even aware of this trend by launching Uber Teen in 2017. Fortunately, they came to their senses and shut down the website due to safety reasons.

Parents always ask if Uber is safe for their teen. The answer to the question is NO!! On this episode of the digital parent podcast I discuss why you should never use Uber or Lyft to transport your child.

According to the latest Pew Research study, almost 60% of teenagers have experienced some form of cyberbullying. Teens report being harassed online is a significant problem for their age group. The most alarming statistics from the study is the lack of empathy from black parents on the subject of bullying. Based upon data whites and hispanics are more inclined to worry about their child being bullied. 

On reason black parents may not be paying attention to the issue is due to how bullying behavior is normalized within the black community.  On this episode of the Digital Parent Podcast I will discuss the top 3 forms of bullying that is unique to black students.

School bullying and cyberbullying are often covered by the media but very little attention is given to workplace bullying.  According to the Workplace Bullying Institute, workplace bullying is the harmful mistreatment of one or more persons by one or more perpetrators. It is an abusive conduct defined by threatening, humiliating, intimidating, sabotage, or verbal abuse. At least 75% of workers are impacted by workplace bullying based upon research.

In our anti bullying series for National Bullying Awareness Month, we invited Dr. Mildred Peyton  on the Digital Parent Podcastto discuss how workplace bullying impacts teenagers. Most teens are the youngest on their job making them susceptible to workplace bullying. Teens are also seeing higher instances of sexual harassment on their first jobs.

Dr. Peyton is an expert on school bullying with two new children booksdedicated to the subject. In 2015, she wrote her dissertation on exploring the Meaning of School Bullying Among Parent of Victimized Children. On this episode of the Digital Parent Podcast, we discuss some of the following topics:

1. What is The Definition of  Workplace Bullying?
2. Please Give Examples of Different Forms of Workplace Bullying?
3. How Can Teens Stand Up to Sexual Harassment on The Job?
4. What Are Some Tips to Prepare Our Children for The Workplace?

1. How to Report Workplace Bullying
2. Ways to  Prevent Workplace Bullying
3. How to Advocate For Your Child's Workplace Rights

Schools across America are back in full swing . Students are returning back to school from a device heavy summer trying to readjust to a school routine which does not consist of an entire day consuming Playstation 4 games and Youtube content. Parents now have the challenging task of weening youth off their devices.  Youth are now more addicted to their devices than candy.

Research studies show the impact of screen time on the health of our youth. A  new studyindicate the risk of increase screen time with depression and suicidal ideation. Recently, researchers have also found a link between childhood obesityand increase screen time.  According to the study, youth increase their eating while watching media content. They become lost within apps while not monitoring their food intake.

In order to get control of screen time, we brought in our partners from Comcast to update us on the xFI parent control software.  Since we last discussed xFI on the digital parent podcast, millions of parents have downloadedthe app to pause the internet.

Patti Loyack, Vice President of IP Services at Comcast,  joined the show to discuss some of the newest xFI features that totally gives parents controls over the internet. Here are some of the topics Patti and I covered on this episode.

Click Here for More Information.

Over 93% of 6-12 year olds in the United States have access to smartphones and tablets.  More than 66% of those 6-12 year olds have their own devices and according to the same Common Sense Media survey 3 out of 5 parents allow access to social media sites.  This data has led to Facebook on this past Monday to release Facebook Messenger Kids.

Messenger Kids is a new chat app for 6 to 12 year olds that is currently only downloadable for iOS devices. Messenger kids offer video and text chat, cool filters, colorful GIFs, creative masks, and a collection of other shinny features. Facebook has waged war on Snapchat for the young generation of digital citizens that are key to their survival.

On this episode of the Digital Parent Podcast, I break down the Top 3 Reasos to Love and Hate Facebook Messenger Kids.

Black Friday is only hours away and most  Americans will be participating this year with a strong economy.  According to an  annual survey by the the National Retail Federation and Proper Insights & Analytics, an estimated 164 million people planned to shop during Thanksgiving weekend.  That number includes Cyber Monday, when almost half of online shoppers are estimated to participate in holiday spending.

Unfortunately, Black Friday is Christmas for online scammers and hackers. There will be a variety of ways criminals will try to steal social security numbers and hack bank accounts. The Better Business Bureau put out a list of helpful tips. On this episode of the Digital Parent Podcast, I will discuss the top 5 Black Friday Scams and my top 3 solutions to those scams.

Shame is defined as a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety. In the online world shaming has become a huge problem for adults and teens. According to a recent Pew Survey, 1 in 4 adults have experience online harassment.

The White House and others have made it cool to shame and ridicule others online. For some parents online shaming has become a parenting tool to discipline  teens for bad behavior. Although we have covered the topic of cyberbullying on numerous occasions on the Digital Parent Podcast, we wanted to cover the complex topic of online shaming on this episode.

In order to give this topic it's proper due, we invited my friend and online shaming expert Sue Scheff to discuss online shaming and her new book Shame Nation that is flying off the shelves at Barnes and Noble. Sue Scheff is a nationally recognized author, Parent Advocate, and Family Internet Safety Expert.  She has been featured on 20/20, The Rachel Ray Show, ABC News, Anderson Cooper, CBS Nightly News, Katie Courie, Dr. Phil, Canadian CBC Sunday News Magazine, CNN Headline News, Fox News, BBC Talk Radio, NPR, and others.

On this episode of the Digital Parent Podcast Sue and I discuss the impact of online shaming, how the president creates a culture of shame, and strategies to prevent shaming.

Here are some of the topics that Sue and I covered on the show.

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New research indicates that video game addiction is a real thing! On a recent episode of the Digital Parent Podcast, Dr. David Greenfield discussed video game addiction with teens and athletes.  On this episode we wanted to do a deep dive into video game addiction.

Child Psychiatrist Dr. Clifford Sussman joins the show to discuss video game addiction and some of the consequences he sees in his practice. Dr. Sussman and I discussed options for treatment and how parents can afford to pay for treatment.

Dr. Sussman is on the volunteer faculty at GWU medical school, where he serves as a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He has presented to parents, students, staff, and clients  on multiple topics including Digital Technology Addiction, parenting and mentoring adoptive and foster children, psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, ADHD, and Autism.

He has been on multiple expert panels discussing digital technology addiction with various schools around the region and is planning multiple presentations on this topic for the 2017 annual AACAP meeting in Washington, DC. He is currently developing an animated series of youtube videos to provide psychoeducation on digital technology addiction.

Click HERE for the show notes.

The Device Free Movement has finally influence corporations to take notice and provide solutions for families. The Comcast Xfinity team has stepped up to the plate to tackle this issue. A new Comcast research  study shows that parents across the nation desire to disconnect from devices during dinnertime to improve family bonding.

The nationwide study of parents, conducted by Wakefield Research, also found:

• Dinnertime is bonding time – Nearly every (98 percent) parent surveyed agrees that disconnecting from devices during mealtime improves family bonding.
• Parents can set an example – More than half (52 percent) of parents have been told by their children to put their device away during meals.
• Device-free meals are rare – More than 2 in 5 parents (42 percent) can’t remember the last time their family had a device-free meal.  And Millennial parents have an especially hard time remembering the last time they broke bread without a device at the table (49 percent), compared to Gen Xers (37 percent) and Boomers (33 percent).
• Sneaking screen time - Parents admit to taking away their children’s devices an average of once per week and more than half (56 percent) have found their children trying to sneak their devices when they were banned from them. 
• Going to extremes to disconnect – nearly one-third (31 percent) of parents make their children leave their devices in a basket before bedtime, while 14 percent go so far as to disconnect their modems to block Wi-Fi usage.

Click Here for Show Notes:

Digital Citizenship has been a new topic of interest among schools across the U.S. The increase in cyberbullying and sexting incidents in school have caused school districts to figure out a way to teach appropriate ethics to students. Digital citizenship has become a way for schools to invite online safety speakers and law enforcement  to discuss good digital ethics.

There is another movement called social leadership that is taking digital citizenship to the next level. The emphasis is more on how students can use social media to connect with experts and college professors outside of their classroom. How students can develop empathy towards one another and how to take on social justice issues.

In order to explore this new trend, we invited author Jennifer Casa-Todd to discuss her new book SocialLEADia. SocialLEADia highlights examples of students and teachers that use technology and social media to move past the cyber safety and cyber ethics towards social leadership. The book highlights how students can use social media to address inequality and social justice issues. Jennifer and I discussed some of the following topics:

Click Here for show notes