Scrolling 2 Death

The Big Tech Gut Check is a super quick, weekly update on all things social media and Big Tech.

The highlights for this week:

Check back on Fridays for everything that parents need to know about the platforms our children are spending hours on every day.

Interviews mentioned during this episode:

Social Media: An Open Air Drug Market (with Bill Bodner)

Drugs in a Snap (with Amy Neville)

More Snapchat More Problems (with Sam Chapman)

This week's Big Tech Gut Check is sponsored by Bark Technologies.

I thoroughly enjoyed this wide-spanning conversation with Jessica Elefante. We cover so many topics related to parenting in a digital world.

This is one of my favorite conversations so far. Jessica Elefante is an artist, an author, a mother and co-chair for Mothers Against Media Addiction (MAMA). 

Every mother (and parent) will relate to this very raw conversation where we dig into screen use, social media and all things parenting in a digital world.

About Jessica Elefante

She is the author of Raising Hell, Living Well: Freedom from Influence in a World Where Everyone Wants Something from You (Ballantine, 2023) which she coined a How-Come (not a How-To). Jessica’s writing works to open people’s eyes on the topics of technology, capitalism, influence, and motherhood and has appeared in The Guardian, Literary Hub, Huffington Post, Bustle, Simplify Magazine, the Dispatch, Whalebone Magazine and more. 
As the founder of acclaimed Folk Rebellion and a critic of today's culture, Elefante’s award-winning works shine a light on the untenability of our times and have been featured by Vogue, The Atlantic, Inc., Los Angeles Times, The Observer, Writer’s Digest, Vice, Paper Mag, Wired, and elsewhere. 
Her short documentary “What Day Is It?” was awarded semi-finalist of Flickers RIIFF and an Official Selection of Beverly Hills Film Festival and New York Shorts Film Festival, for its portrayal of a mother's perspective on the ever-shifting emotional and mental states of lockdown. In her previous life as a brand strategist, she was recognized on Brand Innovators “40 under 40” list for winning her clients industry recognition including Webby, Edison, and AdAge awards. Jess has proudly been a guest lecturer at Columbia Business School and New York University sharing her expertise in entrepreneurship and branding. 
Currently she’s using her experience in tech and media as a co-chair for Mothers Against Media Addiction (MAMA). For her work as an artist and writer she’s honored to be a judge for the 2024 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. She's influenced by the social, cultural, and technological circumstances of her life, but mostly, of her desire to lead a colorful one. Raised in upstate New York, she now lives in Brooklyn with her family. She is no longer bullshitting.

Today's episode is about our kid's access to pornography.

Kids are getting access to porn earlier and earlier. I wondered, how is the early access to today's boundary-pushing pornography affecting them? So I brought in Kristen A. Jenson of Defend Young Minds. 

Kristen advises parents when and how to have the conversation about pornography with our kids. One thing I learned -- we cannot let the internet teach our kids about sex and porn. The risks are too great. 

Website/Books: www.defendyoungminds.com/books 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DefendYM/ 

Instagram: @defendyoungminds

X (formerly Twitter): @defendYM

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/defend-young-minds 

About Kristen A. Jenson: 

Author of #1 best-selling Good Pictures Bad Pictures: Porn-Proofing Today’s Young Kids, Good Pictures Bad Pictures Jr: A Simple Plan to Protect Young Minds, and Good Pictures Bad Pictures Guidebook for Counseling Kids, executive producer of Brain Defense: Digital Safety curriculum, the founder of DefendYoungMinds.com, and owner and CEO of Glen Cove Press LLC.

The Big Tech Gut Check is a super quick, weekly update on all things social media and Big Tech.

The highlights for this week:

🧐 New research from Pew Research Center on social media influence

💰 Issue One releases amount of $$ Big Tech spent lobbying against online safety

📱 NY Times Opinion: Are smartphones driving our teens to depression?

⚖️ Is Big Tech funding biased research studies?

👩‍⚖️ Updates on the TikTok law...will it be overturned?

🔐 A new solution for smartphone problems at school. Washington post article here.

Check back on Fridays for everything that parents need to know about the platforms our children are spending hours on every day.

Welcome to Teachers Talk, a series on Scrolling 2 Death featuring candid discussions with teachers. Parents get the real deal on what's happening with screens at school.

Today's episode features the incredible Reagan Berry, a High School Principal in West Texas.

This episode is all about Snapchat. It's a breakdown of the features that are harmful for minors (there are quite a few).

I brought in Titania Jordan for this conversation, who is the Chief Marketing Officer of Bark Technologies.

This episode actually took a crazy turn when I find out that Snapchat seems to have lied about turning off their controversial Solar System feature by default.

Parents: If your child is on Snapchat or asking for Snapchat, please listen to this episode to ensure you're preparing them for what they may encounter on this harmful platform.

This episode is sponsored by Bark Technologies.

You can get 10% off the entire life of your Bark App subscription! Just use code: SCROLLING2DEATH

Check out the Bark Phone: https://info.bark.us/scrolling2deathbp

Check out the Bark App: https://info.bark.us/scrolling2death_bark

The Big Tech Gut Check is a super quick, weekly update on all things social media and Big Tech.

The highlights for this week:

👨‍⚖️ President Biden signs TikTok bill into law

‼️ TikTok found to be serving suicide content to minors

👻 Pedophiles are targeting our kids on Snapchat in droves

👨‍👨‍👧‍👦 Georgia passes a new social media law for minors under 16

💰 Instagram found to be profiting off of "nudify" apps

Welcome to Teachers Talk, a series on Scrolling 2 Death featuring candid discussions with teachers. Parents get the real deal on what's happening with screens at school.

Today's episode features 12-grade English teacher Dean Bavisotto. 

Today (April 24, 2024) President Biden signed a bill into law that is forcing ByteDance - the Chinese-based company who owns TikTok- to sell TikTok to an American company within a year or face a national ban. 

In this episode, I inform parents on what this law actually means for the American people and what will come next. 

Parents have been asking me about BeReal. Is it safe? Should we let our kids use it?

I did a deep dive and outlined the pros and cons of BeReal, in today's mini-episode of Scrolling 2 Death.