Screenwise: Helping Kids Thrive (and Survive) in Their Digital World

Heitner, founder and director of Raising Digital Natives (RaisingDigitalNatives.com), presents parents with tips for becoming their child's media mentor by encouraging them to be "tech literate" if not a tech whiz. The author provides helpful insight into how today's youth not only consume online information but create it, and that kid-friendly sites such as Google's safe search and the YouTube Kids app can only go so far in helping to guide digital behaviors. She further delivers firm tips for parents to model in their own tech use (clearly defined boundaries, unplugged times, etc.) and solid examples for evaluating kids' readiness to form friendships in the digital world (ability to utilize privacy settings and understand their importance, knowledge about when to take conflicts offline, etc.). In addition to the informative narrative, Heitner also includes valuable questions for parents to ask children that may yield surprising answers (e.g., "Does social media ever stress you out?").