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: 👨‍⚖️ 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 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 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.

This interview with former Congressional staffer Patrick Lyden gives parents an understanding of how our children are currently protected when they spend time online and what legislation is needed. The biggest takeaway for me is that parents need to speak up about what we want regarding kids online safety.  We also break down what's happening with the TikTok "ban," social media age restrictions, the current state of tech in schools and much more in the digital safety space. NOTE: This conversation took place on April 8th. There have been legislative updates since then related to the safety bills discussed, in addition to the TikTok "divest-or-ban" bill. Visit my Instagram (@scrolling2death) to get real-time updates on all of these topics. Resources mentioned in the episode: Visit house.gov to find your member of Congress and voice your concerns about online safety for children. (form is on the top-right of the webpage) Children and Screens Institute BrightCanary monitoring platform More about Patrick: Patrick Lyden is founder of CurrentStrategic, a government relation, business development, and strategic initiatives firm based in Washington, DC. Patrick brings more than 20 years of experience in both the public and private sectors, including in Congress and political campaigns. Over his career, he has maintained strong bipartisan relationships in and out of government. From start-up to the largest private sector companies, Patrick has led clients to successfully engage with government stakeholders and develop partnerships with leading organizations and businesses. A skilled communicator, Patrick leverages his broad understanding of the legislative process and decades of relationships across the federal government, foreign governments, business, associations, and non-profits to assist clients in crafting and meeting their strategic and policy objectives. Patrick uses his extensive experience in building and engaging in coalitions to drive forward client priorities. Prior to founding CurrentStrategic, Patrick led strategic initiatives for a robotics startup and co-led Congressional advocacy efforts for Uber Technology with a focus on the new economy, the workforce of the future, and emerging technologies such as autonomous vehicles. Prior to that, Patrick worked for leading Members of Congress as a Chief of Staff and as senior staff for several committees of the House of Representatives. Patrick lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, Sarah Rittling, and their two daughters.

The Big Tech Gut Check is a super quick, weekly update on all things social media and Big Tech. The highlights for this week: Updates on WhatsApp and the danger of encrypted messaging TikTok test accounts show that TikTok is suggesting suicidal content to teens Study shows link between social media use and gambling New research identifies most harmful aspects of social media for minors Update on this week's Congressional hearing  What's happening with the TikTok "ban" (with special guest Patrick Lyden) Snapchat's effort to identify AI-generated content Instagram's disappointing announcement related to nude images 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 brand new series here on Scrolling 2 Death. In these candid discussions with teachers, parents get the real deal on what's happening with screens in the classroom. Today's episode features High School teachers Matt Miles and Joe Clement. Matt and Joe are incredible advocates in this space and are authors of one of my favorite books, ⁠Screen Schooled: Two Veteran Teachers Expose How Technology Overuse Is Making Our Kids Dumber⁠ Be sure not to miss our version of "Mean Tweets" toward the end of the episode! 

This episode is all about social media safety. I constantly wonder; will my children be safe on social media? The short answer is no.  To advise on the topic, I brought in Marc Berkman, who is the CEO of the Organization for Social Media Safety. Together, we walk through evidence-based harms that exist on social media and proposed legislation to make social media a safer space for us to connect.  We also discuss this week's congressional hearing where we will learn more about 9 proposed online safety bills including KOSA, Sammy's Law, COPPA 2.0, APRA and others. Fingers crossed for creating safer online spaces for us and our children to connect!Check out OFSMS: https://www.socialmediasafety.org/ Tell your representative if online safety for children is important to you. Visit this link and enter your ZIP code at the top-right: https://www.house.gov/

The Big Tech Gut Check is a super quick, weekly update on all things social media and Big Tech. The highlights for this week: What's really going on with TikTok?  The imitation game continues with TikTok Notes Snapchat fools us all! More lawsuits against Big Tech KOSA and COPPA 2.0 introduced into the House Don't forget about Discord 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 brand new series here on Scrolling 2 Death. In these candid discussions with teachers, parents get the real deal on what's happening with screens in the classroom. Today's episode features 9th grade Language Arts teacher Tara Hodgson. After 17 years of teaching, Tara has a well-earned perspective on how technology in school is affecting our kids. Here's a link to grab a copy of Tara's book.