Parent Resources
Recommended Websites
Ask the Mediatrician: The Center on Media and Child Health (CMCH) at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) is an academic research center whose mission is to educate and empower children and those who care for them to create and consume media in ways that optimize children’s health and development. Founded in 2003 by pediatrician, father, and former Hollywood filmmaker Michael Rich, CMCH focuses on media as a powerful environmental health influence, like the air we breathe and the water we drink. We seek to understand the positive and negative health impacts media can have and find ways of making media the most positive possible influence in children’s lives.
The Children's Screen Time Action Network: The Children’s Screen Time Action Network is a coalition of practitioners, educators, and advocates working to promote a healthy childhood by reducing the amount of time kids spend with digital devices. The Network is a project of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.
Common Sense Media: This collection of family resources is from the leading independent nonprofit dedicated to helping kids thrive in a media and technology rich world. You’ll find a collection of resources for common parent concerns as well as top picks for apps, websites, and other learning tools. Check out their cell phone page for tips on how to set rules; choose the right phone and service plan; and stay on top of what your child is doing on their phone.
Connect Safely: Nonprofit organization dedicated to educating users of connected technology about safety, privacy and security. Here you’ll find research-based safety tips, parents’ guidebooks, advice, news and commentary on all aspects of tech use and policy.
Cyberbullying Research Center: Provides up-to-date information about the nature, extent, causes, and consequences of cyberbullying among adolescents. It is intended to be a resource for parents, educators, law enforcement officers, counselors, and others who work with youth.
Digital Literacy: Portal organizes content, enables valuable discussion and collaboration among users and offers best practices to improve the quality of digital literacy offerings.
Healthychildren.org: Family resources from the American Academy of Pediatrics, including media-related resources, including an online family media plan and media time calculator. For more detailed information on the AAP guidelines for media use in school age children, please reference this report: Media Use in School-Aged Children and Adolescents.
Netsmartz.org: A variety of resources and safety tips tailored for parents, tweens, teens, and younger children.
OSPI Teach & Learn Internet Safety: Covers topics of cyberbullying and online safety, and provides in-depth training materials for self- or group study.
Outsmarting the Smart Screens: A Parent’s Guide to the Tools that are Here to Help: The Harvard School of Public Health Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity have a free resource entitled “Outsmarting the Smart Screens: A Parent’s Guide to the Tools that are Here to Help.” This is an 11-page free download that covers:
- Tools to limit television time, computer time, smartphone/tablet time, & video game time.
- 1-page cheat sheet on tools to limit screen time.
Personal Protection Systems "The White Hatter": Established in 1993 in Victoria B.C. the family run company is dedicated to providing pro-active Internet and Social Media safety, digital literacy and workplace violence prevention training to schools, businesses, corporations, law enforcement and government.
Safe Smart Social: A resource for teens and tweens on how to be safe and smart on social media.
Wait Until 8th: The Wait Until 8th pledge empowers parents to rally together to delay giving children a smartphone until at least 8th grade. By banding together, this will decrease the pressure felt by kids and parents alike over the kids having a smartphone.
Helpful Apps
Mindfulness Apps for Kids: Anxiety is one of the biggest day-to-day challenges that my Autistic daughter faces. It’s one of those dark sides of Autism that many Autistic people struggle with. From coping with change to sensory needs to difficulty understanding emotions and black and white thinking, anxiety likes to creep in and roar... loudly. This list of 15 Apps for Kids with Anxiety has done wonders for helping us navigate the negative thinking, difficult social situations, and anxiety.