Talking Back to Facebook: The Common Sense Guide to Raising Kids in the Digital Age

Steyer (founder and CEO, Common Sense Media, Stanford), a lawyer, and former teacher, here offers parents and educators a diamond of a book on media smarts. He begins by examining how technology affects a growing child's brain ("mental brownouts"), the relationship problems that are exploited by e-communication, how the "impulse-enabling nature of social media platforms, coupled with the vulnerable and inexperienced social and emotional development of many young people, can be combustible," and the alarming loss of privacy for digital natives. However, the text is never "anti-tech," and he dedicates an entire chapter to the positive impacts technology can have on children and society at large. The second part of the book is dedicated to nuts-and-bolts guidelines for parents, such as how to decide which games are okay for kids, at what age children should get a cell phone, and whether Facebook is really safe for teens.