The Screen Smart Podcast

On the final episode of season 1, Alex and Jay sit down with Angela Santomero, the creator of the popular television shows Blue's Clues, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, and Super Why! Angela has a new book out called Preschool Clues: Raising Smart, Inspired, and Engaged Kids in a Screen-Filled World. In the episode we discuss how she came up with the ideas for her television shows, why parents shouldn't feel guilty for letting their kids have screen time, how to make good media choices for your kids that reinforce good values, and her recommendations for deciding how much screen time your kids should have.

On Episode 15 we welcome Matt McKee from Circle with Disney. Matt has a background both in ministry and as a tech entrepreneur and now describes himself simply as “just another guy trying to make a difference.” He’s a speaker, consultant, and author who also serves as VP of Business Development for Circle with Disney, a device that helps manage and monitor the Internet on a Wi-Fi network, and an app that does the same thing on mobile devices.

On episode 14 we talk with Chris McKenna about the danger of porn and how to help your kids deal with it. After working in the business world and then in student ministry, Chris became Educational Resource Manager for Covenant Eyes, an Internet Safety and Accountability Company. In 2015 he created Protect Young Eyes as a way to equip and encourage parents and students to use technology responsibly. Now, hundreds and hundreds of hours later, Chris’ research has helped countless families around the country.

On Episode 13 we welcome NPR's Anya Kamenetz to talk about her book, The Art of Screen Time. Anya Kamenetz is an education correspondent for NPR and has written about technology and education for years. In this episode we talk about the lack of research when it comes to children and screens/media, and how you can appropriately balance screen time and your family.

We're glad to welcome Debbie Reber of TiLT Parenting for Episode 12 of The Screen Smart Podcast. Debbie is a New York Times bestselling author and the founder of TiLT Parenting, a website, top podcast, and social media community for parents who are raising differently-wired children. Her new book, Differently Wired: Raising an Exceptional Child in a Conventional World, comes out in June 2018. Our conversation with Debbie includes: * What it means to be differently wired or "neurodiverse" and how many children can be described this way (you might be shocked!). * Whether the increasing number of diagnoses is related to greater awareness or to issues related to technology. * How the Reber family manages technology with their differently-wired teenager, and how that has evolved over time. * Why she is not usually in favor of banning technology and how she suggests parents handle contentious issues and situations. * How she helps her son learn to self regulate screen time.

On this episode we talk with Joe Ryan, the education coordinator for the South Carolina Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. We talk to Joe about keeping kids safe online, and he tells us how bridge the gap between parents and kids when it comes to the Internet and social media use. Other topics covered include sexting and cyberbullying.

Episode 10 features a conversation with Sue Scheff about cyberbullying. Sue is a nationally recognized author, speaker, parent and family internet safety advocate, and the author of Shame Nation: The Global Epidemic of Online Hate.

On this bonus episode we dive deep into the wildly popular video game Fortnite. We discuss how the game works and what parents should be concerned about if their kids play it. We hope you enjoy!

Welcome to Episode 8! Today we’re talking with Carl Petrovsky, founder and CEO of Netsanity. Netsanity is a parental control app for Apple iOS and Samsung devices. It allows parents to block certain apps, filter inappropriate content, set time schedules, filter Youtube & Google searches, and much more. Netsanity is simple to install, simple to use, and works very effectively.

On Episode 7 we talk with Dr. Russell Moore, a well known speaker, author, and the President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. The ERLC is the moral and public policy entity of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. Moore is a frequent cultural commentator, an ethicist and theologian by background, and an ordained Southern Baptist minister. He is the author of several books and appears frequently on CNN and other media outlets. He and his wife Maria are the parents of five sons. Our conversation with Russ includes: * How our relationship with technology impacts deep philosophical questions about what it means to be human. * How we so easily fall into the trap of self-imposed cyber bullying... and what that means! * What's going on with tech that is not getting enough of our attention. * How the Moore family manages screen time for their five boys.

On Episode 6 we talk with Brooke Shannon about the Wait Until 8th pledge and movement. The Wait Until 8th pledge calls on parents to band together in their community and commit to each other that they will wait until at least 8th grade to give their kids a smart phone. Wait Until 8th has certainly garnered a lot of attention, including spots on the Today show, Good Morning America, and features on CNN, NPR, and USA Today, and a host of major daily newspapers across the US. You can find Wait Until 8th chapters across the US and beyond.

On episode 5 we speak with Cam Adair, founder of Game Quitters. Cam has a compelling story about his own journey into and out of gaming addiction, which we get into at length. While Cam's story of gaming addiction is pretty extreme, our conversation will offer practical insights to parents whose kids play video games for 18 minutes or 18 hours a day.

On Episode 4 we’re excited to talk with Monica Swanson, the “Grommom” herself! Monica is a successful and influential blogger at MonicaSwanson.com, where she writes about parenting, marriage, health, and faith, while sharing slices of her family’s life in Oahu’s famous North Shore. She’s hard at work on her book, Boy Mom, which is scheduled for release in 2019. As the mother of 3 teenage boys and one younger son, she’s got a lot to say about the importance of being intentional in shepherding kids in their relationship with the digital world.

We're pleased to bring you our conversation with Crispin Swan, a founder of Family Zone. We’re grateful for his time and for coordinating a conversation across a huge time zone divide! Family Zone offers a really strong solution for families (or small businesses and schools) who want to provide a “full-service” filtering option for their network. While filtering is important to help protect your family from the truly nasty stuff on the Internet, we’d affirm what Crispin said: for many families the real game-changer is simply the establishment of routines (limiting hours, scheduling downtime, etc.). We both see Family Zone’s “secret sauce” as their use of cyber experts to continually update and monitor subscriptions and recommendations.

Internet Safety 101. This was fun! Some of the content in this episode grew out of Jay’s short e-book, A Parent’s Guide to Internet Safety: Your Resource for Parenting in the Digital Age, which is available on Amazon.