Why Our Teens Got First Smartphones at 16 and 18
First smartphone, boy, age 18 While on vacation in Europe, our son dropped his child-safe Pinwheel phone on the pavement, and it smashed into smithereens. No wonder - the phone…
Cyber Extortion: Blackmail in Your Inbox
They Know Who You Are Some time ago, a few identical emails from fictional individuals landed in my spam inbox. I normally do not pay much attention to spam, but…
How To Hack Parental Controls: Kids Are Smarter Than We Think
23 Ways (and Counting) for Kids to Bypass Your Parental Controls WikiHow.com Q&A: Question: Will my parent see if I removed parental controls? Answer: Unless they check, you'll be fine.…
Gryphon Router Parental Controls Review
To protect our children from online dangers and manage screen time, we switched our family WiFi network to a Gryphon parental controls router. My Gryphon router parental controls review as…
How Phones Hack Our Brain: Anatomy of a Notification
How Phones Hack Our Brains: Anatomy of a Notification By TechDetox Mom This article has been featured in The Startup, Medium's largest active publication Do we pick up our phone…
Pinwheel Phone Review: Is It Good for Teens?
We just switched our 17-year old from the child-safe Gabb phone to a parent-managed Pinwheel smartphone to give him more freedom and functionality. This review is our family’s actual experience…
How to Block Inappropriate Content on Your Family Network for Free
How to Block Inappropriate Content on Your Family WiFi Network - For FREE Parents, do you know what your kids are looking for? This is a snapshot of their actual…
School Zone – No Phone Zone!
Tools for Distraction and Cheating?Teachers stand no chance against YouTube and Instagram.Let's face it - smartphones at schools wreck our children's education and destroy their capacity to learn. The phone…
Travel Away from the Screen
Do you notice that our traumatic news cycle seems to suggest the world is coming to an end? Sometimes the possibility seems uncomfortably close - I was supposed to go…
Healthy, Happy and Wise: Kids’ Offline Relationships in a Digital World
We all want our children to grow up to be happy. What would bring them happiness? Is it money? Fame? Good genes? No. There are plenty of people who have…
Gabb Phone Review: My Kids’ Life Without Smartphones
My Kids Have No Smartphones and They Are Ok By TechDetox Mom Neighbors stop me on the street to comment how unusual it is that my children say hello, look…
Kids Don’t Want to Go Back to School: Screen Addiction and Social Anxiety
After a long pandemic screen time binge, schools have reopened. Why do some kids refuse to go back? Because they'd rather stay on their screens. I know, it’s politically incorrect…
The 7 Habits for Most Effective Computer Homework
Let's face it - our children are distracted. When they are supposed to do their homework, the siren call of digital distractions is just too strong to resist. My son's…
The Big Bad Tech Tantrum
“Never get in between a drug addict and their drug”. When parents attempt to take devices away from kids, what might follow is an extreme emotional meltdown - the dreaded…
Screen Time Risks for Our Children
Social Media Can Kill: Known Since the 18th Century
Social media kills young people. It is responsible for teen suicide epidemic. The shocking truth is that we knew about this since the 18th century. Every time there is another…
Human Brain vs Machine Intelligence: Not a Fair Fight
Artificial Intelligence is getting smarter. While a human brain stays the same. Not a fair fight. AI and Human Weaknesses To influence someone, you have to find their weaknesses: this…
Humanity trapped by COVID-19
Humanity trapped in The Matrix by COVID-19 If I was an evil Artificial Intelligence genius, this is exactly where I would want humans to be - scared to death, glued…
Parenting Solutions for Digital Stress Reduction: What to Do When Teens are Overwhelmed
Screen Time Moderation It's an unfortunate fact of life that most of the stress that teens experience today originates from their many digital activities. Social comparison, cyberbullying, anxiety, depression, and…
Reasons to Unplug from Digital Addiction
Digital Addiction and Stress Young people are stressed living with digital media 24/7, it makes them overwhelmed and in some cases drives them crazy straight into psychiatric diagnoses of anxiety…