TPP 313: Dr. Devorah Heitner on Online Safety and Internet “Rabbit Holes” and Differently Wired Kids

Today is an important conversation about online communities and internet rabbit holes. And I felt pulled to tackle this topic for the show because I know that the past few years in particularly has been a time where differently wired kids have been a) spending a LOT more time online and connecting with people they may not have even meant in real life, and b) doing their identity development largely online as a result of COVID. And I also know that this can put our kids, and us as their parents and caregivers, in challenging positions as we navigate a seemingly endless stream of discourse that may lead our kids down the wrong paths.

So I asked my friend and screen and tech expert Dr. Devorah Heitner to join me for a frank and open conversation about it all. We talked about the ways differently wired kids might be exposed to harmful content, and why our kids may be more susceptible to toxic or unhealthy virtual rabbit holes in the first place, the popular places where teens and kids are hanging out the most right now, the way our kids’ worldview and their brain development is impacted they content their engaging with, and what we parents might not know that we should know about regarding this topic.

Dr. Devorah Heitner is the author of Screenwise: Helping Kids Thrive (and Survive) in Their Digital World and her book on navigating Privacy and Reputation with kids and teens, Growing Up in Public will be out in 2023 with Penguin Random House.

Dr. Heitner’s work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and CNN Opinion. She has a Ph.D. in Media/Technology & Society from Northwestern University and has taught at DePaul and Northwestern. 

Things you'll learn from this episode

• Why differently wired kids are more vulnerable to Internet rabbit holes
• The places online where today’s teens and kids are hanging out the most right now
• Whether it’s possible to set up controls to manage the type of contents kids are accessing on sites like Reddit
• The way our kids’ worldview and their brain development is impacted by engaging with potentially toxic content
• What parents don’t know about what's going on with their kids and the way that they're accessing content

Resources mentioned for Unmasking Autism

• Devorah Heitner’s website
• Phonewise Boot Camp 
• Screenwise: Helping Kids Thrive (and Survive) in Their Digital World by Dr. Devorah Heitner
• Devorah’s TEDx Talk, The Challenges of Raising a Digital Native
• Devorah on Twitter
• Devorah on Instagram

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