How to Raise Responsible Digital Kids

Dr. Yalda T. Uhls, a former exec at MGM and Sony, left the moving-picture show world to study the media'south event on child development, earning a PhD in Psychology at UCLA. Uhls is now an adjunct professor at UCLA, a office-fourth dimension adviser at Mutual Sense Media, an educational consultant on Dot—an blithe series from Randi Zuckerberg and The Jim Henson Co.—and the author of Media Moms & Digital Dads. PCMag spoke to Dr. Uhls after she gave a speech to parents at a private elementary school in the San Fernando Valley on raising responsible digital kids.

PCMag: So, y'all merely soothed more than 50 parents who are terrified about what their kids are getting upward to online?
Dr. Uhls: [Laughs] I hope and then. I started giving these talks in 2022, and what I really try to practise is provide context for an informed discussion, besides as applied tools. So I commencement by taking them dorsum to the end of the 19th Century, when parents were freaking out about books and the influence they had on their children. Information technology's all most control.

Many cultures have banned and burned books as dangerous over the years; the plot of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, of form.
Exactly. It's the same principle. Control and authoritarianism. But that just doesn't work as a parenting tactic, even in the digital world.

Then what do you propose parents do in the face up of 24/seven admission via social networks and omnipresent screens?
All the child development research suggests that the near effective parenting manner is 'authoritative.' That is, loving and warm, but firm with rules. When I speak to parent audiences, I recommend that they appoint in agile media mediation.

Is that using Cyberspace filters and carving out allowable screen time?
It's more near having structure and being positive and proactive. Filters often cause children to find a way around them and can therefore atomic number 82 to the most risky behavior, particularly as they become teenagers.

Dr. Yalda T. Uhls

And atomic number 82 to burgeoning hacking skills before high school starts.
Admittedly!

Then practice you lot fix out guidelines such as the best age to give your tween a smartphone?
I don't practice that, because I don't want parents to be judged on their decisions. Each family is different, and parents know their kids all-time.

Just in your research, what'due south the average age?
The national average is somewhere betwixt ten-12.

The question you must get a lot is 'What do I do when my child uses a search engine and stumbles on porn?'
That's usually the offset question whenever I speak at schools. It comes downward to parenting style again. Your children have to feel comfortable coming to you lot with this information and know you're not going to freak out, or shame them. You demand to sit down them down, ask them how they experience about what they just saw, talk to them, and also help them to acquire meliorate searching skills.

Because if they don't go to their parents with questionable content, they'll have no context for what they just saw?
And if they don't experience comfortable telling their parents, then the only way parents are going to know is if they comb through their child's browser history.

You gave a speech at the Google L.A. campus, talking about your book, Media Moms & Digital Dads, in which you highlight the importance of developing 'digital and media literacy' inside the family.
It'due south known as '21st century readiness' and the Obama administration was specially key in emphasizing this in the schoolhouse curriculum. It's of import for kids to learn how to search safely, source accurate information—in the face of fake news—and develop critical thinking.

You're also known for highlighting the positive child developmental aspects of video games. Tin can y'all provide some examples?
In that location'south a lot of inquiry on video games and noesis. Nosotros now know that absorbing and retaining information in 2nd, via the screen, while playing a game, peculiarly those that accept a potent element of spatial rotation, can translate to using this power in the existent globe. Ane anecdotal example is my son, who is 14, and plays a lot of games on Steam. When we were in Belize, he asked me if he could drive a golf cart. I agreed, and he drove it perfectly, most likely because he's played a lot of driving games online. The skills transferred.

And you lot have shared some research findings about gender, which was heartening to say the least.
Child evolution research has found that, on boilerplate, girls have a lower agreement of spatial rotation—which is an important underlying skill for math and engineering science—than boys of the same age. However, several studies demonstrated that when a daughter plays certain kinds of video games on a regular basis, her ability to mentally rotate objects improves dramatically, about on par with boys.

As an academic who used to be a Hollywood studio executive, yous've now carved out a niche back in amusement. Can y'all tell the states nigh working on Dot with Randi Zuckerberg?
Through my former career I knew many execs at The Jim Henson Company. And then when they partnered with Randi Zuckerberg to make Dot, they brought me on board. I give notes on scripts to assist them promote positive digital citizenship and create content that is advisable for the audience'due south developmental phase.

Dot is one of the few shows currently on air that has a central child graphic symbol who has a salubrious relationship with engineering.
Which is why I'm so proud to contribute to information technology. The show embeds important lessons nigh beingness responsible with technology without feeling preachy. Honestly, I went into the motion picture business originally considering I believed movies could change the world. Equally an academic I've learned about and conducted research, both negative and positive, on media and stories. I'thousand hoping to elevate the value of this kind of inquiry within the entertainment industry. I'd like to assistance content creators who write for children and adolescents to understand the latest kid evolution research and to utilize it to craft stories for maximum prosocial learning. Entertainment and digital executives want to do the right thing, and I want to make information technology easy for them.

To hear more from Dr. Uhls, she is speaking at the Kidscreen Tiptop in Miami, Florida, on Feb. 15 and at the Harvard Business School on Feb 25.