Essays · Still in the Room
Research-based guidance for parents navigating social media, algorithms, screen time, and digital safety with children and teenagers.
16 essays
The research doesn't give you a single number. But it gives you something more useful: the right questions to ask.
Your child knows how to use TikTok. They have no idea how TikTok uses them.
Teenagers are not children who haven't grown up yet. They're a different problem. Here's what the evidence shows works — and what backfires.
Parental monitoring software is a multi-billion dollar industry. The evidence for whether it works is far murkier than the marketing suggests.
Your kid can configure a VPN, explain NFTs, and spot a deepfake in three seconds. The authority dynamic just shifted — here's how to work with it.
The world your child is growing up in produces more content in a day than the previous century did in a decade. Critical thinking is no longer optional — it's survival.
Parents treat TikTok like a problem to be solved. Their kids treat it like a place. That gap explains almost every failed conversation about it.
By the time most parents bring up social media, their kids have already formed their digital habits. The earlier conversation matters more.
Your teenager has stopped telling you things. That's not a crisis — it's a signal. Here's how to respond to it.
The algorithm isn't neutral. It has an agenda, and your child is exactly the kind of user it was designed for.
Every app you block teaches your child one thing: how to find a workaround. There's a better approach.
Apple's Screen Time and Family Sharing are powerful — but the defaults are wrong for most families. Here is the setup that child development research supports.
Most screen time rules fail within weeks. Here is what child development research says about why rules don't hold — and what works instead.
Australia banned under-16s from social media. The UK and EU are considering similar laws. Here is what the evidence says about whether age limits actually work.
Most kids hear 'we need to talk about your phone' and immediately go silent. Here's how to open a conversation that actually stays open.
The evidence is real. But it's more specific — and more actionable — than the headlines suggest.