Digital Parent

Similar to the Vietnam War era of protest, today's teen are more engaged now than ever in political protest. Student protestors are taking it to the streets and the digital streets to let their voices be heard. Victims of Bullying are taking their protest to social media. Teens are using their constitutional right to protest to bring awareness to bullying. Teens are protesting budget cuts at school that will eliminate music programs. Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook has become the venue for teens to engage in hashtag activism. On this Episode of the Digital Parent Podcast, I sit down to talk with Parenting expert Annie Fox. Not only does Annie hasve year of experience writing books on parenting, but she has a lot of great war stories of being a student protestor. Annie discusses her current journey of protesting Women issues. Here are some of the questions I asked Annie:  

Device Free Dinner is a new movement for all digital parents. Restaurants have started to reward families with free meals for going device free. Common Sense Media has spearheaded a campaign for families to ditch their devices for dinner. There is a good reason the #DeviceFreeDinner hashtag is picking up steam. Research indicates that uninterrupted family time during dinner has significant health benefits. Kids have a decreased chance of having behavior problems at school. Kids also have a decreased risk of abusing substances. On this Episode of the Digital Parent Podcast we talk with Sheri Veges who is the owner and founder of  "Crate Your Phone". Sheri and her husband ditched the phones awhile ago at dinner in order to have device free dinners.  They coined the term "Crate Your Phone."  Crate Your Phone was created by developing a crate to store the family devices during dinner. Sheri's  Crate Your Phone  crate has now become a staple for the #Devi

  High school students are in the process of preparing for college. College applications, essays, and resumes are being prepared to gain acceptance or to land a scholarship.  Only a select few  number of students will be auditing their social media profiles. Social Media pages can be a potential landmine for aspiring college students. More attention from universities is being placed on student's social media sites. A survey by Kaplan covered 381 college admissions officers . Over 31% of the admission officers surveyed said that they have visited an applicant Facebook or social media page to learn more about them. 30% of those same officers stated that they discovered negative and damaging information that negatively impacted the applicant's chance to enroll in college. Cornerstone Reputation, and educational company committed to students helping to protect their digital foot print, conducted a college athletics survey in 2015 revealed college coaches and recruiters heavily monitor social media.

Parent Shaming has become the new form of cyberbullying by parents on social media. Daily posts of parents punishing their tweens on social media or by standers taking video of  parental mistakes and uploading them to the internet. The Harambe incident is a perfect example of parent shaming. A quick lack of supervision leads to an incident that caused brutal online attacks across Facebook and Twitter. On this Episode of the Digital Parent Podcast we reach out to Parent Shaming Expert Mercedes Samudio to discuss ways to prevent parent shaming. Mercedes Samudio, LCSW, is a parent coach who helps parents and children communicate with each other, manage emotional trauma, navigate social media and technology together, and develop healthy parent-child relationships. Mercedes started the #EndParentShaming movement as well as coined the term Shame-Proof Parenting – using both to bring awareness to ending parent shame. She has been featured on The Huffington Post, US News and Report, Woma

According to Pew Research, historical black churches are having a hard time attracting youth to attend church. Most youth that attend church are part of youth ministries that tend to disconnect them from other adults in the church and their pastor. Unfortunately, this disconnect is preventing youth from tapping into one of the greatest resources they have to locate mentors, learn new skills, and serve the Lord. On this episode of the Digital Parent Podcast, PR Coach Pam Perry and I discuss how teens can use church participation and service to brand themselves as experts. Pam Perry is an award-winning communications professional. She has been called by Publishers Weekly a "PR Guru" and featured in many major publications, and on more than 100 radio and TV programs. Pam Perry also has a 20-year career expertise in marketing, public relations and journalism in Detroit. Her clients have been featured on CNN, TBN, The Word Network, Radio One, Oprah Magazine, Tom Joyner Morning Show, Essence, Ebony, Black

On any given day in the United States, there are almost 428,000 children in foster care in the United States.  Unfortunately, in 2015 more than half of children entering U.S. foster care were young people of color. Foster Care kids face the same risks as most kids but their living situation places them at a unique risk. For example, foster kids are more likely to be targeted for sex trafficking, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and bullying compared to non foster care youth. Due to child welfare caseworkers being overworked, foster kids are starting at a unique disadvantage. Dr. John Degarmo, author of the book Keeping Foster Children Safe Online, stops by the Digital Parent Podcast to provide tips and strategies for foster parents to keep foster kids safe. Dr. Degarmo is the director of the Foster Care Institute and is also a consultant for multiple foster care agencies and state agencies across the United States. John conducts training throughout the year with foste

Students spend a lot of time ensuring that they have the highest GPA to include on their college application. What if they could add a GPA score for their use of social media? What if college admission officers took into account this social GPA when making admission decisions? Julie Fisher, the founder of Social U, has answered these questions.  Her company has created proprietary software that scans students social media sites and provide a grade based upon the appropriateness of uploaded content. Since over 50% of admission officers review social media of student applicants, Social U provides a free way for parents to audit their child's social media file. On this Episode of the Digital Parent Podcast, Julie and I discuss how Social U can be a valuable resource to parents and teens. Julie and I discussed some of the following topics on this episode: Click on the Shoe notes Here

Most students wait until their junior or senior year of high school before they start searching for scholarships. The students that begin their search do not have a scholarship resume, scholarship team, or a social media presence to attract college recruiters. In order to help these students and many more, we invited the top scholarship search strategist Ashley Hill to provide some guidance and tips. Ashley is a Scholarship Search Strategist who is passionate about teaching overwhelmed students (K-12, homeschool, adult, international, undergraduate, and graduate students) how to use their talents and achievements to increase their chances of winning scholarships. Ashley hosts an annual event, College Success Conference, to provide future college students and their college success partners with key tools to start the school year with a competitive edgeShe has a monthly column in Solo Parenting Magazine in addition to her weekly radio show, College Prep Radio.  Also, Ashley is a College Success B

Its after the holidays and most kids and teens are preoccupied with their new iPhones, tablets, laptops, etc. As parents, these devices have become digital day cares occupying hours at a time of screen time. The only problem is that cyber-criminals are fully aware that kids have received new devices for Christmas and most parents  don't have a clue on how to monitor them. On this episode of the Digital Parent Podcast, I decided to get the top ethical hacker Terry Cutler to provide us tips on how to protect our children from some of the top internet scams used by predators and criminals. For over a decade, Terry Cutler has dedicated himself to teaching cyber-security. Besides helping corporations by investigating fraud & securing their networks from hackers, Terry has developed a comprehensive assessment of threats, vulnerabilities & risks program for establishing needs for protection and accountability solutions.  Terry and I discussed some of the following issues on this

Surveillance equipment has been something left to James Bond movies. In this new age of digital parenting, surveillance equipment is becoming another parenting tool used throughout childhood. There are constant horror stories of nannies abusing children once parents are away from home. Nanny Cameras have become the go to device for parents to audit babysitting services or to watch their 12 year old once they enter the home from schools. The amount of auto accidents by young teen drivers has required parents to install GPS trackers to monitor driving habits. The good news is that these devices have provided insurance discounts on auto premiums. On this Episode of the Digital Parent Podcast we have the number 1 surveillance Expert Todd Morris who is the founder of the Number 1 surveillance company in the world Brickhouse Security. Todd and I on this episode discuss how nanny cameras and gps trackers can provide a piece of mind. Here are some of the questions that Todd and I discussed on this show

It's the season of seeking scholarship money. Parents and caregivers are searching all over the internet to locate scholarship applications to assist with the increasingly high cost of college tuition. The parents that are not searching for scholarships are hoping that their child's 529 plan will be enough to fund 4-5 years of college. Then there are parents that have paid anywhere from 500-5,000 dollars to hire a college planner to locate free institutional grants to provide their child with a free ride to college. On this episode of the Digital Parent Podcast we talk with one of the top college planners in the industry. Danny Umali, the founder of Game Theory College Planners, provides us with an inside look of the new field of college planning. Danny discuss how his company uses advance analytics to pinpoint the exact college that will provide a "Free ride" for your child to attend their University. Danny and I also discuss how social media is becoming the secret sauce to landing institutional grants.

We are at the beginning of the college application season. While many parents are paying thousands for SAT prep courses, the smart ones are assisting their  teens in creating outstanding social media profiles on LinkedIn to get accepted to schools such as Harvard. A great profile on a site such as LinkedIn has become the new equalizer in the college recruitment process. Most families, despite social economic barriers, have access to the internet either in their home or public libraries. Social Media optimization allows student to put their best foot forward for potential colleges and employers. On this episode we have the one and only Alan Katzman from Social Assurity. Social Assurity provides students, schools, and parents with ecourses that teach students how to optimize their Linkedin and twitter profiles to attract the attention of colleges and employers. Alan was recently featured in the New York Times. One of his Social Assurity clients caught the attention of Harvard University

A recent study  found that 85 percent of black teens own or have access to a smartphone. Among Hispanics and whites in the same study, 71 percent own or have access to a smartphone.  The Pew study also indicates that African American teens dominate messaging apps such as Kik and Snapchat. 46% of Hispanic teens and 47% of African-American teens use messaging apps to send texts, compared with one-quarter (24%) of white teens with cell phones. Due to the increase access to smartphones and the use of messaging apps, African American parents are becoming concerned about cyber traps.  A recent study from Northwestern indicates that internet safety is one of the top concerns among African American parents. On this episode of the Digital Parent Podcast, Cybersafety Expert Reginald Corbitt and I discuss that the top online cybertraps that pose significant risks to black teens. Reginald is the founder of SafeCyber whose mission is to bring cyber awareness

Public and Permanent is not on the mind of most teenage cell phone users. A recent Pew Study indicates that most young people have migrated to messaging apps that self destruct, such as snapchat and Kik. Teens are under the belief that once their messages are deleted no one can ever access them again. Unfortunately, many young people have found out the hard way through sexstortion attempts that whatever is posted on line is public and permanent. On this episode of the Digital  Parent Podcast, my friend Richard Guerry and I destroy the privacy myth and indicate why everything you type and post on line is Public and Permanent. Richard Guerry is the founder of the non-profit organization the Institute for Responsible Online and Cell-Phone Communication (IROC2).Richard is also the author of multiple cyber safety and citizenship books, and has been a featured speaker at many national conferences and conventions. He has also appeared as a digital safety expert on various media outlets like CNN,

On this Episode of the Digital Parent Podcast we discuss strategies on how to capture a cyberbully. October is National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month so we wanted to provide some tips for parents . Here are our Top 4 Strategies to deal with Cyberbullies: 1.Talk to your Child Some insults online may not mean much to us as adults but could be incredibly painful to  kids. Ask kids every day about their school day. Ask them what apps they are using. Google the app to see if bullying is taking place. If so then have a discussion with your child to determine if they know someone that has been bullied. 2. Capture the bully You want to save all screenshots of the harassment and upload to a cloud storage system such as google drive or dropbox. This way if the bully takes your phone you still have the evidence safely secured. You can use monitoring software such as mSpy that will collect all images, text, app screenshots, etc to a dashboard that you can later download. This information wi

African-American and Hispanic youth frequent the internet more than any other race. African American youth report going online 34% of the time compared to 19% of White teens.  According to Pew Research, over 85% of African American youth have access to a smart phone.   Although there is heavy consumption of the internet and access to technology, African American teens are severely underprespresented in the tech industry. On this episode of the Digital Parent Podcast we talk with serial entrepreneur Anthony Frasier to discuss how teens can gain access to the tech industry through the development of mobile apps. Click Here for the Show Notes! Episode Sponsor mSpy- Top Monitoring software on the market! Monitor all of the hottest teens apps such as Tinder, Snapchat, Kik, WhatsApp, Instagram, and many more.

Student athletes have been the pioneers of utilizing social media to create their own personal brand to promote to college recruiters. Student athletes constantly tweet and post game highlights on  social media sites to share with different universities. Most D-1 coaches take into account teen' s social media profiles during the recruitment process as a way to judge character.  Laremy Tunsil is the poster child of how inappropriate use of social media can cost a future NFL draft pick millions. He posted a video on twitter of using a bong to smoke marijuana. The video was released on NFL draft night and caused his stock to fall costing him millions.  There have also been countless situations of athletes post derogatory comments towards coaches and teammates after a bitter loss thereby, damaging their ability to find successful employment after college. Few companies want employees who are not team players and complain through social media channels.  On this episode of the Di

There is a common myth that teenage boys and young men have hyper sex drives that they can not control. Their main objective is to have sex with as many females that are willing to have sex with them. This hyper sexuality among teenage boys is promoted by mass media through television, music, and social media. Dr. Andrew Smiler stopped by the Digital Parent Podcast to debunk this myth by brining light to the multifaceted  sexuality of teenage boys. Dr. Andrew and I on this podcast discuss his new book Dating and Sex a Guide for the 21st Century Teen boy. The book provides a guide for parents to discuss dating and sexuality with teenage boys. It takes the next step from the normal Birds and Bees conversations. Dr. Smiler and I cover a lot of topics on boys and sexual relationships on this episode. Here are some of the questions that we covered: Questions I Asked Andrews About Teenage Boys And Relationships: How Has Rap Music Impacted Teenage Boys Perception of Sex? How can Boys Naviga

Digital Natives can be defined as a person born during the age of digital technology and therefore familiar with computers and the internet from birth. These are the kids whom pictures were posted all over Facebook and Instagrams when they were born. These are the kids that were giving iPads at the age of 1. Digital Natives are the kids that are provided smartphones at the age of 6. These digital natives are such experts in technology that their parents believe that there is no need for mentoring or parenting around technology. We have all heard parents say "My child knows much more than I will ever know about technology." On this Episode of the Digital Parent Podcast, Dr. Devorah Heitner discuss her new book ScreenWise. In her new book Screenwise, Devorah discusses how parents can learn how to become digital mentors to their kids. Devorah provides examples of how parents are modeling appropriate tech use and behavior with their kids. Click Here for Show Notes! This Episode sponsored by mSpy. Click

Expecting Moms may not be aware of the risk that wifi and wifi related devices may have on their pregnancy. Over a hundred physicians, scientists, and public health professionals around the world have joined together to express their concern about the risks wireless radiation pose to expecting moms. The physicians started The BabySafe Project to raise awareness. Cybersafety Expert Frederick Lane takes on this issue in his new book Cybertraps for Expecting Moms and Dads. Frederick Lane is an author, attorney, educational consultant, and lecturer based in Brooklyn, NY.  He is a nationally-recognized expert in the areas of cybersafety, digital misconduct, personal privacy, and other topics at the intersection of law, technology, and society. Lane has appeared on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, the BBC, and MSNBC. He has written eight books, including most recently Cybertraps for Educators (Mathom Press 2015).  Click Here for more infor