Talking Back to Facebook
The Common Sense Guide to Raising Kids in the Digital Age
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
A smart, urgently needed book that helps parents and their kids navigate today’s online landscape—from the founder and CEO of the nation’s leading authority on kids and the media.
Now, more than ever, parents need help in navigating their kids’ online, media-saturated lives. Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, the nation’s leading kidsand- media organization, and the father of four children, knows that many parents and teachers—unlike their technology-savvy kids—may be tourists in the online world.
In this essential book, Steyer—a frequent commentator on national TV and radio— offers an engaging blend of straightforward advice and anecdotes that address what he calls RAP, the major pitfalls relating to kids’ use of media and technology: relationship issues, attention/addiction problems, and the lack of privacy. Instead of shielding children completely from online images and messages, Steyer’s practical approach gives parents essential tools to help filter content, preserve good relationships with their children, and make common sense, value-driven judgments for kids of all ages.
Not just about Facebook, this comprehensive, no-nonsense guide to the online world, media, and mobile devices belongs in the hands of all parents and educators raising kids in today’s digital age.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this cogent, forthright treatise, Steyer looks at privacy in the modern age and the precautions parents should take to protect their children and better monitor their digital lives. Founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, a nonpartisan children's advocacy group in San Francisco, Steyer (The Other Parent: The Inside Story of the Media's Effects on Our Children) bemoans the alienation and narcissism engendered by time-consuming social media sites like Facebook, opining that they "can diminish the quality and depth of personal relationships and weaken basic communication skills." He cautions against the "cruel and damaging" consequences of phenomena such as sexting and cyberbullying, while wisely arguing that teens should self-reflect before they self-reveal. Steyer, a father of four, further warns that tech-savvy children are "not just watching TV, listening to iPods, and playing video games. They're inhabiting a virtual universe that's shaping their reality, setting their expectations, guiding their behavior, and defining their interests, choices, and values." With the second portion of the book broken into chapters covering a child's digital development from birth to 15-years-old, parents at every level will likely find something relevant here. Though he offers nothing Earth-shatteringly new it is a common sense guide, after all the earnestness and conviction with which Steyer addresses his topic effectively highlights the many pitfalls of growing up with Facebook, and most importantly how to avoid them.