#113 Keep Your Teens Safe Online

Every parent wants to keep their teen safe online. But we can fall into the trap of spending most of our time fighting over screen time while spending minimal time on educating our teens and raising their awareness of the dangers online. We need to intentionally  focus on having informative conversations with our teens. Every time your child logs onto social media they are at risk from a number of social media-related dangers like cyberbullying, depression and suicide, hate speech, sexting, and human trafficking, to name just a few. And many children are averaging over 5 hours a day on social media! To address these issues I have invited Marc Berkman and Ed Peisner to be our guests for this show,.  Marc Berkman serves as the CEO of the Organization for Social Media Safety, a national consumer protection organization that protects against all social media-related dangers like cyberbullying, hate speech, and human trafficking. Under his leadership, the Organization for Social Media Safety has taught social media safety skills to thousands of students, parents, and educators across the country; passed into law essential social media safety legislation like Jordan's Law, the nation's first law to deter social media-motivated violence; and helped develop software and apps to protect against social media-related dangers. Previously, Marc served for over a decade as a senior advisor to members of Congress and the California State Assembly. During his time as a legislative aide, he developed and helped pass numerous legislative initiatives to protect vulnerable children and families.  Marc received his JD from Columbia Law School and his BA from UC Berkeley. He lives with his wife and two children in Los Angeles, CA.  After a long career in business, Ed Peisner founded the Organization for Social Media Safety in 2017 after his teenage son Jordan was viciously assaulted in West Hills, CA. The attack was filmed and uploaded to social media by an associate of the attacker. Jordan was left with serious and life-long injuries from the assault. Ed decided to dedicate himself to the goal of ensuring that no other family had to endure such a terrible ordeal. Ed now proudly travels the country teaching students, parents, and educators essential social media safety skills.  To find out more about the Buckling the Social Media Seatbelt Course or to contact Mark or Ed go to ofsms.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices