Every month, 430 students at one Texas high school watched two of their own classmates lead an assembly on cyberbullying, online predators, and the gap between who teens are online and who they really are.

McKenzey Roach and Malayna Mitchell are graduating seniors who built and ran their school's monthly digital citizenship program, called CHAT, reaching every student at Lubbock-Cooper High School as part of a DECA project.

In this conversation, they walk through how a mandatory video segment nobody wanted to watch became something students actually engaged with, why they sent an anonymous survey to the entire school before choosing a single topic, and what it felt like to have their opinions on cyberbullying and online safety broadcast to freshmen and seniors alike. You'll hear their honest take on why the same post feels safe on Instagram but terrifying to say out loud, and what they'd tell an incoming freshman about building a social media presence without losing themselves in it.

Key insight: McKenzey and Malayna say the friendships that lasted through high school were the ones built face-to-face, not through a Snapchat quick add. Reach online and real connection, they agree, are not the same thing.



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Join the conversation in our Parenting in a Tech World Facebook community: https://info.bark.us/join-pitw

Learn how Bark helps families navigate cyberbullying, screen habits, and online safety conversations at home: https://www.bark.us

Cyberbullying, drug conversations, sextortion risk, and violent threats aren't just happening on your kid's phone, they're showing up on school-issued laptops too. New Bark for Schools data breaks down exactly how often, by category and by state.

Titania Jordan, Chief Parent Officer at Bark Technologies, shares data from Bark's work protecting students across more than 3,700 school districts nationwide since the program launched free in response to the Parkland shooting.

In this episode, you'll hear the real alert breakdown from school-issued devices: violence-related content topped the list at almost 40%, with drug-related conversations close behind at nearly 23% and medically concerning content at almost 12%. Titania also shares a state-specific finding from Georgia, where over half of all alerts were tied to a child being contacted by a predator.

You'll also learn about Bark's free Connected Communities program, which brings hands-on digital safety education directly to fourth and fifth graders, and TechSafeLearning.org, a resource founded in memory of Nate Bronstein that gives parents templates and guidance for opting their kids out of unsafe school tech.

Key insight: In Georgia, more than half of all school-device safety alerts Bark sent were for a child being contacted by a predator.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review wherever you’re watching or listening, it only takes 30 seconds and helps other parents find us.

Join the conversation in our Parenting in a Tech World Facebook community: https://info.bark.us/join-pitw

Learn more about how Bark protects kids on school-issued devices: https://www.bark.us/schools

Additional resources mentioned in this episode:

• https://info.bark.us/tech-safe-learning
• https://info.bark.us/cc

The teachers walking into classrooms right now grew up glued to screens too, and that's reshaping how teacher prep programs handle screen addiction, shortened attention spans, and phone distraction in the classroom.



Melanie Lay and Amy Hickman train future educators at Texas Tech University, and both also evaluate teacher preparation programs nationwide, Melanie through US PREP and Amy as a TPI-US inspector.

In this conversation, they break down what's actually being taught to future teachers about managing devices, social media, and mental health in the classroom, and what's still a gap. You'll hear why even 20-something teacher candidates get pulled off task by smartwatch notifications, why Texas now requires phones to stay in lockers during the school day, and what happens when a one-to-one device rollout has unintended consequences for kids' attention and eyesight.

Key insight: after a decade collecting data from 7.5 million families, Bark says pediatricians are now reaching out directly for guidance on what to tell parents about kids' screen time.

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Join the conversation in our Parenting in a Tech World Facebook community: https://info.bark.us/join-pitw

Learn more about how Bark helps families navigate screen time and online safety: https://www.bark.us

Behind every Bark Phone, Watch, Home, or Sync that arrives on your doorstep, there's a team of real people, not robots, who packed it by hand. In this episode, you'll meet the humans responsible for making sure your child's safety device gets to your family the right way.

Shari manages Bark's distribution center in Utah, and Crystal is the operations support specialist who keeps daily operations running.

You'll hear what it was like to build the distribution center from an empty warehouse into a fully operational hub, including the mistakes, the surprises, and the moments that made the scale of the work suddenly feel real. Shari and Crystal share what they look for in the people who touch a Bark product before it reaches a family, and walk through what actually happens between the moment you place an order and the moment it lands on your porch.

Key insight: Every Bark product that ships to a family passes through the hands of real people who care about the mission, not an automated assembly line.

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Join the conversation in our Parenting in a Tech World Facebook community: https://info.bark.us/join-pitw

Curious what's actually behind your child's safety setup? Learn more about Bark's family of products at https://www.bark.us.

Online predators are actively targeting your kids right now, and two Michigan men decided they couldn't wait for the system to act. Jake Hockey and C.J. of Pred Task Force built a team that runs undercover stings, with decoys posing as minors on dating apps, confronting suspects on camera, and calling law enforcement when the time is right.

Jake and C.J. are citizen investigators who have grown Pred Task Force from a local Michigan operation into a nationwide mission, with hundreds of thousands of followers watching their work unfold in real time. In four months of operation they caught dozens of offenders, and survived a loaded gun pulled on them during a confrontation.

They walk you through exactly how a sting works from setup to confrontation to law enforcement handoff. They also get honest about the dangers they face, the legal criticism their work has drawn from local prosecutors, and how they define their role when the system feels too slow. You'll hear what they've learned about how predators operate online and what parents consistently get wrong about where these conversations start.

Key insight: Predators aren't lurking on the dark web. They're finding kids on the same apps your teen uses every day, and early detection is the intervention that most victims never got.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review wherever you listen — and if you haven't subscribed yet, now is a great time. It helps other parents find us.

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

• Follow Pred Task Force on Instagram: https://info.bark.us/predtaskforce-ig
• Follow Pred Task Force on Facebook: https://info.bark.us/predtaskforce-fb
• Subscribe to the Pred Task Force YouTube channel: https://info.bark.us/predtaskforce-yt
• Support Jake and CJ by purchasing PTF merch: https://info.bark.us/predtaskforce-merch

Join the conversation in our Parenting in a Tech World Facebook community: https://info.bark.us/join-pitw

Bark monitors your child's devices and alerts you to contact with potential predators before a conversation escalates: https://www.bark.us

The invisible mental load of early parenthood — tracking feeds, monitoring sleep, anticipating every need — is one of the most exhausting and least-talked-about realities of having a baby. Nanit's latest parent report pulls back the curtain on what's actually happening in homes across the country during those first overwhelming years.

Victoria Vaynberg is the Chief Customer and Marketing Officer at Nanit, the smart baby monitor and parenting platform used by millions of families — and she's spent her career at the intersection of technology, health data, and the moments that matter most to parents.

In this conversation, Victoria breaks down what Nanit actually does beyond watching over a crib, what the parent report data revealed that genuinely surprised her, and how the platform is designed to ease — not add to — the mental load parents already carry. She also shares how she thinks about the responsibility of being inside some of the most intimate moments of family life, and the natural through-line between keeping a baby safe at night and helping families navigate technology as kids get older.

Key insight: Nanit's parent report found that the mental and emotional weight of early parenthood is significantly underestimated — and that parents are actively looking for tools that give them confidence, not just information.

Connect with Victoria: https://info.bark.us/victoria-vaynberg

Learn more about Nanit: https://info.bark.us/nanit

Read Nanit's 2026 Parenting Report: https://info.bark.us/nanit-parenting-report-2026

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review wherever you're listening — it only takes 30 seconds and helps other parents find us. 

Join the conversation in our Parenting in a Tech World Facebook community: https://info.bark.us/join-pitw 

Learn how Bark supports families as kids grow beyond the nursery: https://www.bark.us

Financial sextortion is targeting teenage boys at an alarming rate — and most families have never heard of it until it's too late. In 2022, 17-year-old Gavin Guffey fell victim to an online blackmail scam and died by suicide. His father, South Carolina State Representative Brandon Guffey, refused to let Gavin's death be the end of the story.

Rep. Guffey is one of the driving forces behind Gavin's Law, one of the nation's first pieces of legislation specifically targeting financial sextortion — and he's now working to build momentum for similar protections at the national level.

In this episode, Brandon shares who Gavin was as a person, how the scam unfolded, and what he wants every parent and teenager to understand about how these predators operate. He breaks down what Gavin's Law actually does, where the fight to hold tech platforms accountable stands today, and how families can get involved in protecting other kids.

Key insight: Financial sextortion scams often move from first contact to blackmail within minutes — and the criminals specifically target teens who are least likely to tell a parent.

Learn more about Rep. Brandon Guffey: https://info.bark.us/rep-brandon-guffey

Follow Brandon on Instagram: https://info.bark.us/brandon-guffey-ig

Support Less Than 3: https://info.bark.us/less-than-3

If this episode moved you, please leave a review wherever you're listening — it takes 30 seconds and helps other parents find us before they need this information.

Join our Parenting in a Tech World Facebook community: https://info.bark.us/join-pitw

Learn how Bark monitors for sextortion warning signs and alerts parents before a crisis escalates: https://www.bark.us/

Diane Tarantini is a survivor, author, and body safety educator whose work is bringing one of the most underreported forms of child sexual abuse into the open. In this episode, she shares the story behind her children's book The Brave Knight — which teaches kids to recognize grooming and speak up — her memoir Everyone Was Silent, and why child-on-child sexual abuse is being called America's silent epidemic. If you've ever wondered how to talk to your kids about body safety or what warning signs parents often miss, this conversation is a must-listen.

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Visit Diane's website for resources and to order her books: https://info.bark.us/diane-tarantini
• Follow Diane on Instagram: https://info.bark.us/diane-ig
• Brad Watts' book Sibling Sexual Abuse: https://info.bark.us/brad-watts-ssa
• Diane and Kimberly's online course Raising Safe Siblings: https://info.bark.us/rasing-safe-siblings
• John Hopkins CSA resources: https://info.bark.us/john-hopkins-csa
• 5 Waves: https://info.bark.us/5-waves
• Sibling Sexual Trauma: https://info.bark.us/sibling-sexual-trauma

Jen Davidson spent years raising two kids with a simple but powerful ritual — intentional conversations she called Life Lesson Lunches — and her grown children loved it so much they asked her to write it all down so they could use it someday as parents themselves. In her book Keep Talking, Jen offers a warm, practical roadmap for staying connected with kids even when they're doing everything to push you away. We get into the book, the unconventional origin story behind it, and what Jen has learned navigating social media as a first-time author who never wanted to be on it in the first place.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Jen's website: https://www.jenshoemakerdavidson.com/
• Order Jen's book: https://www.jenshoemakerdavidson.com/#preorder
• Subscribe to Jen's Substack: https://jenshoemakerdavidson.substack.com/
• Follow Jen on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenshoemakerdavidson
• Connect with Jen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jen-shoemaker-davidson-6079a430

What does it actually feel like to be the kid on the other side of all that well-intentioned parenting technology? Audra and Savanna grew up navigating learning challenges with tools, apps, and monitoring software shaping their daily lives — and they're here to tell the truth about what helped, what felt like a leash, and what they wish the adults in their lives had done differently. If you've ever wondered whether the tech you're using is building your child's independence or quietly undermining it, this one's for you.