Screen Guardians Podcast
Screen Guardians Podcast
Podcast Description
Screen Guardians Podcast is your go-to resource for understanding digital wellness for kids and teens. We aim to help families take the guesswork out of screen time, apps, games, and everything in between.
It’s not just about control—it’s about empowerment!
Because raising kids in the digital age doesn’t come with a manual, but it should come with guidance you trust.
Our episodes are designed to:
• Educate parents about the latest trends in children’s digital engagement.
• Provide scientifically-backed insights on the impact of screen time.
• Offer practical strategies for building healthy digital habits.
• Address concerns with social media, gaming, online safety, and beyond.
No matter your child’s age or stage, we’re here to help you feel confident and informed about their digital world.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast centers on digital wellness, addressing key topics such as the impact of screen time, online safety, social media usage, and gaming, featuring episodes like 'How to Shield Your Kids From Sextortion Risks Online' that provide practical strategies backed by scientific research and stress the importance of empowering parents with reliable tools.
Helping parents navigate screen time, social media, and online safety — grounded in research, not fear.
The Screen Guardians Podcast is your go-to resource for digital wellness and screen time guidance for kids and teens. Hosted by parent, educator, and digital health advocate Katie Longhauser, each episode helps families take the guesswork out of screen time, social media, apps, gaming, and online safety.
This isn’t about control — it’s about empowerment. Because raising kids in the digital age doesn’t come with a manual, but it should come with guidance you trust.
Every episode is designed to help you:
• Understand how developing brains respond to screens, dopamine, and social media
• Get practical, research-backed strategies for building healthy digital habits
• Navigate social media, gaming, online predators, and digital footprints with confidence
• Feel calm and capable instead of overwhelmed and alone
Whether you’re parenting a toddler with a tablet or a teen with a group chat, you’ll find honest conversations, expert interviews, and real tools you can use tonight.
Not anti-technology. Pro-child. You don’t have to navigate screen time alone.
🎧 Learn more, join the newsletter, and explore the Parent Portal at thescreenguardians.com
Your Attention Please is a new documentary about social media, AI, and the attention economy, now available on Apple TV and other digital platforms. In this episode, director Sara Robin, parent advocate Kristin Bride, and ReThink inventor Trisha Prabhu join Katie Longhauser to talk about social media addiction, cyberbullying, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), and what parents can do to protect kids online.
What would the internet look like if it were designed for people instead of profit?
Sara shares what pushed her to make the film. After a decade of criticizing social media from the outside, she found she couldn’t put her own phone down and had lost her ability to read for fun. Getting her focus back led her to a bigger problem: almost everyone agrees we’re on our phones too much, but few can picture an alternative.
Trisha offers one. At 13, she invented ReThink, a tool that prompts kids to pause before posting something hurtful. It’s the same idea behind Pause, Check, Choose: give the still-developing brain a moment to catch up. As she puts it, the adolescent brain is “like a car with no brakes.” Her point for the industry is that if a 13-year-old could build this, platforms could have done far more, far sooner.
Kristin explains why they haven’t. She reported the cyberbullying of her son Carson to the app YOLO four times and never heard back. Outrage and drama keep kids online longer, and time online is what gets sold to advertisers. She also describes the fight for the Kids Online Safety Act and the lobbying money spent against it.
In this episode:
- Why the pause matters so much for adolescent brains
- How the business model, more than a lack of ideas, blocks safer design
- Why Sara calls parental controls “lipstick on a pig,” and why design is the real conversation
- Where the Kids Online Safety Act stands, and how states are stepping in on AI chatbot safety
- Kristin’s advice for parents: wait as long as you can, keep phones out of bedrooms and off the dinner table, and keep talking
- What gives each guest hope: phone-free schools, a generation skeptical of AI, and the resilience of the human spirit
Neither Kristin nor Trisha has ever met a parent or a young person who wished they’d gotten social media sooner.
If you’re a parent carrying guilt about this, hear what Kristin says: it’s an unfair fight. No shame. No judgment. You don’t have to navigate this alone. Watch the film, talk about it with your kids, and start where you are.
This episode discusses suicide and cyberbullying. Please listen with care.
Watch the film: https://www.yourattentionplz.com/
ReThink: free on the App Store, Google Play, and as a Chrome extension
Learn more about The Screen Guardians: https://thescreenguardians.com/
Disclaimer
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