Read the latest news and brand new pieces on youth, social media, and emerging technologies! We focus on preventing harm and promoting positive online behaviors.
A Teen’s View of Social Media in 2023
I met Amelia when speaking at a high school in Central Florida, and was struck by her wide-angle view on the impact of social media in her life, and in the lives of her peers. I thought our readers could learn a lot from her insights, and so I asked her to provide this year’s […]
Take it Down: A New Tool to Combat the Unauthorized Sharing of Explicit Images of Minors
It has long been stressed that once you send an image to someone else, or post it online, you lose complete control over how that image is used and where it might end up. While this is still mostly true, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), with funding from Meta, has developed […]
School Administrators Charged with Child Exploitation After Investigating Sexting
Last spring, Brush High School (Brush, Colorado) assistant principal Bradley Bass was alerted to a student sexting issue at his school. He and secondary schools director Scott Hodgson looked into it. They talked to some students who were reportedly involved, and determined that intimate images had been shared consensually. At least one student voluntarily showed […]
How Media Literacy Can Prevent Online Harm
Youth are accessing a remarkable number of mediums (often at the same time!), and are constantly exposed to a wide and deep array of content. This spans the gamut from texts and notifications, to TikTok videos and Snap(chat) stories, to Twitter Spaces and Discord chats. This tidal wave of content is not going to ebb. […]
Cyberbullying Among Asian American Youth Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Last year I posted preliminary results of our inquiry into whether cyberbullying had increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that it had in fact increased, though not to the extent that some had predicted. Today I can share that additional findings from this research have just been published in the Journal of School Health. […]
Model Sexting Law
In my last post, I discussed what I learned in reviewing all of the state sexting laws across the U.S. Some states have comprehensive sexting laws while many others—23 to be exact—have no sexting specific law whatsoever. As noted in my post, this is problematic for a number of reasons, including the risk that minors […]
The Status of Sexting Laws Across the United States
As of July 1, 2022, 23 states in the U.S. do not have laws specific to teen sexting. Our research shows that approximately 14% of middle and high school students have sent explicit images to others, while about 23% have received similar images from others. Likewise, a 2022 meta-analysis of 28 studies published between 2016 […]
Digital Self-Harm and Suicidality among Middle and High School Students
Sameer and I have been interested in digital self-harm for almost a decade now. We first became aware of it when we learned of the suicide of Hannah Smith, a 14-year-old girl from England who ended her own life after being mistreated online. It was ultimately determined that many of the hurtful comments directed to […]
Can Empathy Reduce Cyberbullying Based on Race or Religion?
I have been increasingly concerned about rising levels of hate speech, hate crimes, racist bullying, and xenophobia – especially when considering how these behaviors online are linked to violence offline against marginalized groups. It isn’t just alarming, it’s frightening – especially being a minority and considering what my children may have to deal with while […]
Child Grooming and the Metaverse – Issues and Solutions
Arguably one of the biggest concerns of the metaverse, especially to law enforcement, parents, guardians, and caregivers of children, is the potential for pedophilia, online grooming, and child sexual exploitation. To be sure, the media is quick to focus on this hazard with any new environment (offline or online) that allows for adults and youth […]