Last week, the Wall Street Journal published a front-page article titled, Facebook Knows Instagram is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show. The eye-opening piece uncovers some of Facebook’s own internal research, showing the damaging effects Instagram has on teens’ mental health. In this blog, we offer five simple ways to help your kids deal with social media pressure.

Max Stossel is the Youth + Education Advisor for The Center for Humane Technology—the organization behind Netflix’s documentary, The Social Dilemma. In this conversation, we get to pick his brain about how to talk to our kids about the “secret sauce” tech companies build into devices and apps to keep us hooked on our screens.

When it comes to the teen phenomenon of nude-texting, “just say no” might not be an adequate strategy. It’s important to help your child plan exactly how they will respond when they get asked for a nude. Here are some creative ideas!

Filmmakers Rob and Zareen Cope are a couple of New Zealander parents who spent a year talking to leading experts around the globe about the hazards our kids face in the online world, and what could be done about them. They share this info in their documentary, “Our Kids Online.” Listen in as we talk about how they’ve handled everything from sleepovers and playdates… to the porn talk.

On this week’s podcast, host Krista Boan sits down with Amy Crouch to talk about what it was like growing up in a tech-wise family. Amy is a 19-year-old student at Cornell University and the co-author with her dad, Andy Crouch, of My Tech Wise Life: Growing Up and Making Choices in a World of Devices.

With near-constant exposure to news and social media amidst this injustice, more kids are watching graphic videos of tragic violence and reading hateful comments on social media. Dr. Allison Briscoe-Smith, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion of the Wright Institute, recently shared thoughts on how parents can help kids process and respond to what they are seeing.

It takes an incredibly brave parent to seek out and accept information that contradicts their past parenting choices. Instead of putting on their blinders to protect their ego, they face the truth in order to protect their children. This story is from one such mother, Lauren, who courageously shared her journey—so others might not go through the pain she has been through. Thank you, Lauren.

Although our START Program began just for parents in elementary schools, we are working on developing resources to support educators, coaches, healthcare providers, and business leaders. We believe when a community begins to speak the same language about healthy new tech-use norms, the deeper our impact—and the healthier our kids—will be. We were recently invited to share our training with a special group of people who are building wellness every day for the 22,000 students in Blue Valley—the school counselors.

It’s no secret that today’s teens are growing up in a dauntingly different world than the world we parents grew up in. And honestly? It can be overwhelming to step into our kids’ shoes and see the world from their eyes. That’s why we were so thankful when a START parent—who is also a middle school teacher—offered to be our tour guide, giving a peek into the harsh reality our kids are navigating.

When it comes to setting boundaries with new devices, it is much easier to start with strong limits and release them slowly, rather than trying to put them in place during a time of stress. But if this doesn’t sound like a magical start to your Christmas day, we gotcha covered! Here are five topics to talk about when they unwrap the phone. Feel free to print them as a contract that you and your child each initial!