Ninety percent of adolescents in the U.S. now either own or can access a mobile phone with the internet. Parents worry about how much time teens spend with their devices — and it is a lot. Teens look at screens an unprecedented eight hours a day and cell phones are a major part of that; a quarter of teens say they are online almost constantly.
On this episode we look at seven major concerns parents have about teens and their mobile devices and whether those concerns are justified.
The concerns we explore include:
- Is my teen at risk for stranger danger and/or cyberbullying?
- Does time online affects real-world relationships?
- Are phones causing a digital divide with parents?
- Are teens posting too much personal information online?
- Is multitasking bad for you?
- How pervasive is sexting?
- Are phones affecting teens’ physical health?
Candice Odgers is the Associate Director of the Center for Child & Family Policy at Duke University.
- Look at the paper Seven Fears and the Science of How Mobile Technologies May Be Influencing Adolescents in the Digital Age by Candice Odgers and Madeleine George.
- Here are the latest recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics regarding children’s media use. (Read a blog Candice Odgers wrote about those new guidelines.)
- Read the episode transcript.
- Music by David Schulman and Sound of Picture.