Wellness & Safety — News & Popular Guides
New Report: Designing Digital Safety with Youth in Mind
A thoughtful and much-needed framework for reimagining what it means to protect kids online.
How to Protect Your Online Security
Contrary to what you may have heard, the threats don’t always come from hackers with sophisticated computer skills. There are plenty of criminals that use old-fashioned persuasion and trickery
Guide to Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses
How to use Ray-Ban Meta Smart glasses responsibly.
‘Take it Down’ Law is a Positive Step
The new law will help protect children as well as adults from non-consensual sharing of intimate images.
Behind the Avatars
Roblox sparks creativity and connection—but behind the avatars, there can be more than meets the eye.
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Ask Trish: All About Filters
Trish, do u use filters? I know they’re controversial, what are your thoughts on them?
Ask Trish: Follow Requests
I get follow requests from ppl I don’t know, or ppl at my school that I haven’t really talked to and I never know whether I should accept or not. How do u know who to accept?
Ask Trish: Sextortion Facts
Me last week, reading some recently published articles about sextortion, and thinking to myself: “This issue is too important not to discuss with youth, too. They deserve the facts!”
Parent’s Guide to Teen Sextortion Scams
Huge increase in sextortion scams targeting teens, especially boys aged 14 to 17.
Ask Trish: Spoken Cyberbullying
Someone on Google Hangouts said a bunch of mean things to me. I was so hurt. What do I do when someone actually says mean things online?
Ask Trish: Navigating Tech Post-Roe
Me – and so many other women – thinking to myself after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision: “Is tech safe anymore?”
Is There a Relationship Between Tech Use and Gun Violence?
It was bullets, not bytes — that took the lives of 10 people in Buffalo and 21 people, including 19 elementary school students, in Uvalde, Texas. Still, some are blaming video games and social media, along with mental illness.
Ask Trish: My Debut Book, ReThink the Internet
My debut book, ReThink the Internet, the world’s first-ever by-youth, for-youth guide to safely navigating the digital world, is coming out at the end of this month, on May 31st.
Digital Wellness is Emotional Wellness
Emotional wellness is an area our society is, thankfully, working to build awareness and progress. In schools it is often called “SEL” or social emotional learning and it is sometimes the focus of “self care” content in popular media.
Facebook News: It’s Complicated
One of my favorite phrases is “it’s complicated,” because it expresses the fact that many things in life are not as simple as they seem.
What is Digital Wellness?
Educators are surely familiar with the term “digital citizenship.” We are familiar with coaching and modeling for our students the ways toward acting as an upstander, blocking and reporting bullies and bad actors, and making the internet a more positive and truthful place.
Parent’s Guide to Amazon Fire TV
Manage what, when and how long kids watch through mobile, tablets and the web.
Algorithms Can Do Both Good & Harm
Algorithms – software that figures out what users want to see on social media – help sell us not just products, but ideas that affect our behavior.
Parent’s & Educator’s Guide to Media Literacy & False Information
Two-thirds of students can’t identify sponsored content.
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FCC Allows Phone Companies to Block Robocalls
The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously on Thursday to allow phone companies to block unwanted robocalls. Companies will now be allowed to block these calls by default
YouTube Cutting Hateful and Extremist Videos
YouTube is pulling the plug on thousands of videos that promote bigoted views, including “videos that promote or glorify Nazi ideology, which is inherently discriminatory,”
Safety and Privacy of Smart Displays and Speakers at Home and in the Classroom
We discuss our use of the Facebook Portal as well as other smart displays and speakers that they have tested. There are privacy and safety implications, but they can be managed.
Despite Free-Speech Concerns, Banning Hate a Good Thing
by Larry Magid There was big news from Paris this week where 18 countries and numerous companies, including Facebook,...
Balancing Tech and Low-Tech During Kids’ Summer Break
Summer is almost here, which means that kids will be out of school. While that means that they do have more time to use their devices, it’s also time for fresh air, exercise, and — for many — family vacations.
Helping Kids Survive Bullying and Other Trauma
ConnectSafley CEO Larry Magid and K-12 Education Director Kerry Gallagher talk about how adults can support youth who...
Helping Students Cope with Flood of Presidential Election News
The Presidential election campaign is heating up. And with it will come lots of claims, counterclaims and, likely, plenty of inaccuracies.
Podcast: Helping Students — and Ourselves — Manage Time Spent on Devices
Listen for tips and advice on how to work with kids to make sure they’re not using too much of a good thing.
Why Facebook Instituted its Policy to Ban Support for White Nationalism and White Supremacy
ConnectSafely CEO and CBS News Technology Analyst, Larry Magid speaks with human rights expert Brittan Heller on why Facebook instituted its new policy to ban support for white nationalism and white supremacy.