Apr 30, 2026
by Larry Magid This post first appeared in the Mercury News As regular readers know, I’ve been working in the online safety field for decades. For much of that time, it was common for young people to push back when adults criticized their use of social media, arguing...
Jun 25, 2025
By Hina Talib, MD and Larry Magid, Ed.D. Social media is where teens connect, create, and express themselves—but it’s also a space filled with challenges, from online drama to digital comparison traps. As parents, our concerns about social media are valid—we all want...
May 19, 2025
TikTok-ConnectSafely Family Survey TikTok is one of the most popular platforms for watching and creating short videos. Although you can view TikTok content via its website, downloading the mobile app is the best way to explore features and learn how it works....
Jun 25, 2025
By Hina Talib, MD and Larry Magid, Ed.D. Instagram’s algorithm, which ranks and recommends posts based on your past activity, tries to show you what it thinks you’ll like—but sometimes it misses the mark. If your feed feels overwhelming, repetitive or just not “you,”...
Apr 2, 2026
By Larry Magid This post first appeared in the Mercury News. On March 24, 2026, a jury awarded the State of New Mexico $375 million in its case against Meta over allegations that the company misled users and failed to adequately protect children from harm. The next...
Mar 26, 2026
By Julianna Bryant Julianna is a college student and member of the ConnectSafely Youth Advisory Council. If you had asked me a few years ago if I could ever delete Instagram, after I had spent every summer begging my parents for an account, I would have interpreted...
