Digital Parenting Roundtable: The Internet’s Role in Mental Health 🎥

Expert advice from psychologists on how to protect your child’s mental health in an era where the internet’s integration into our society isn’t going anywhere. 

Aura CEO and Founder Hari Ravichandran sat down with Dr. Alfiee M. Breland-Noble, Psychologist, Author, and Founder of The AAKOMA Project, Dr. Dave Anderson, Senior Clinical Psychologist, VP of Public Engagement and Education at the Child Mind Institute, and Dr. Aliza Pressman, Developmental Psychologist and Co-Founder of The Mount Sinai Parenting Center, at our NYC Digital Parenthood Summit to offer parental guidance in the digital era. 

If [the internet] is here to stay, how do we get parents a playbook that helps them to have the strategies they need, instead of saying we want to put the genie back in the bottle?

It might sound hard to believe, but there was a time when the advent of cars was shunned for being too dangerous for society. It took years for humans to adjust to cars as a new form of technology, outweigh their risks with benefits, and integrate them into daily life. So, knowing that the internet is here to stay, how can parents adapt to its risks and protect their child’s mental health?

6 key ways parents can prepare their families for the internet’s inherent risks:

1. There’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach to mental health

Every mental health case is unique to its individual. Learn what the signs and symptoms of a mental health crisis look like, and understand how they might appear in relation to your child’s baselines. Keep an eye out for drastic changes in your child’s behavior over a two week period so that professionals are more equipped to provide support if needed.

2. Prioritize your child-parent relationship

Toxic stress has the potential to foster mental health issues long-term, but toxic stress can become tolerable stress with the support of a close relationship. Your child’s relationship with you plays a crucial role in their mental health, and once parents realize their power, your child’s mental health won’t feel so out of your control.

3. Be less of a talker and more of a listener

Get to know your children and their friends, and empathize with the fact that being a kid is really hard. Ask open-ended questions like “What’s something good that happened to you today?” rather than “How was your day?” You’re likely to get a more extended answer than just “Fine.”

4. Realize your own generational understanding of technology

As parents, we didn’t grow up with the internet the same way our children are, so it’s natural to feel uncomfortable or unequipped. Sit down with your child, scroll through their devices together, and understand your child’s interests based on what the algorithms show. Everything comes back to open conversations.

5. Relate real world social skills to guide interactions with strangers online

You taught your child “stranger, danger” at the playground, so remind them that the same goes for the internet. While many children, especially those of color or in the LGBTQIA+ community, have benefited from connecting with online communities. It’s important that kids are able to recognize and step away from a potentially dangerous interaction online.

6. Trust yourself and your ability to set good boundaries

Maybe this means no devices at bedtime. Maybe this means setting parental controls. Figure out which approaches are right for your family, lead by example, and when your child is ready for independent internet use, trust that you have set them up with the right tools for responsible scrolling.

Watch the full panel