Tag Archives: mental health

In this episode of Into the Digital Future, Dr. Sameer Hinduja, Co-Director of the Cyberbullying Research Center, joins hosts Laura Higgins and Jordan Shapiro to explore the complexities of youth behavior in digital spaces, including the concept of digital self-harm. Dr. Hinduja shares his insights on building empathy, resilience, and the role of social media in fostering connection and support. This thought-provoking discussion offers valuable perspectives for parents, educators, and policymakers navigating the challenges of the digital age. This transcript…

In this episode of ‘Into the Digital Future,’ hosts Jordan Shapiro and Laura Higgins delve deeper into the intersection of mental health, diversity, and technology with Dr. Erlanger Turner, founder and executive director of Therapy for Black Kids and author of Raising Resilient Black Kids. Dr. Turner,discusses the unique challenges faced by Black teenagers and the ways in which digital platforms can serve both as sources of support and stress. Highlights include the benefits and drawbacks of social media for…

In this episode of ‘Into the Digital Future,’ hosts Laura Higgins and Jordan Shapiro speak with psychologist and best-selling author Dr. Lisa Damour  about the complex emotional lives of teenagers and their digital habits. They explore how some digital habits can serve as a form of self-care,  the impact of algorithms on social media experiences, and strategies for parents to support their teenagers’ mental health. Dr. Damour emphasizes the importance of understanding each child’s unique needs and provides practical advice…

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and Roblox are thrilled to announce the third season of Into the Digital Future, our podcast that explores the complexities of parenting in the digital age. This season, hosts Jordan Shapiro (Cooney Center Senior Fellow and author of Father Figure: How to be a Feminist Dad and The New Childhood: Raising Kids to Thrive in a Connected World) and Laura Higgins (Senior Director of Community Safety & Digital Civility at Roblox) dig into the complexities…

In today’s rapidly evolving world of youth and digital media, it is crucial to stay up-to-date with the latest changes and discover innovative ways to cater to the needs of children, tweens, and teens. At BeMe Health, we are using media to connect and support Gen Z and Gen Alpha wellness, drawing inspiration from the Cooney Center’s recent research on tweens and teens to create the BeMe app, a mobile mental health platform designed to improve teen well-being by bringing…

Panel: Designing Digital Play for Well-Being at Games for Change 2023 July 18, 2023 at 1:45pm The Times Center | Main Stage How do we define well-being in a digital world and what does it mean to thrive? How can developers incorporate diverse perspectives into game design to benefit players from different backgrounds around the world? How can we balance responsible design with business pressures? How can we empower game designers to embed designing for well-being and digital thriving into…

The following is an excerpt from Gaming SEL: Games as Transformational to School and Emotional Learning by Matthew Farber and appears here courtesy of publisher Peter Lang.   In the early 1980s, video gaming often meant arcades, quick experiences designed to eat kids’ quarters. These games provided quick thrills, little in the way of nuanced emotion. Similarly, film was also fairly basic when introduced at the turn of the 20th century. Famously (at least according to legend), in 1895, the…

PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs (SRL) launched On Our Minds with Noah+Zion, a limited-run podcast series on teen mental health this spring. Over a series of five episodes, 16-year-old hosts Noah Konevitch of Lebanon, Pennsylvania and Zion Williams of Clinton Township, Michigan, explored various mental health challenges affecting today’s teens, and shared coping mechanisms from mental health experts. The Cooney Center caught up with Noah and Zion this summer to find out what they learned about making a podcast for the…

Throughout the past year, everyone has experienced pandemic stress. But parents have been particularly vulnerable because of the additional work associated with managing children, especially for those parents trying to continue to work at their jobs. There have been many new studies about the ways that pandemic stress has impacted parents’ mental health. While people turn to a variety of tools to cope with pandemic stress, our study focuses on using entertainment media, specifically video games, as a coping tool. Using…

The following post was originally published by the Children’s Media Association and appears here with permission. On June 3, 2020, The New York Times published an article titled, “Please Stop Showing the Video of George Floyd’s Death” by Melanye Price. Ms. Price made the case that repeated showings of this and other videos of African Americans being brutalized by police have not led to change and may be having unintended consequences such as “reinforcing pernicious narratives that black lives do…