Watch It!
What Parents Need to Know to Raise Media Smart Kids

ABOUT MARY STROM LARSON, Ed.D.

I have been a professor of Communication for over twenty years, specializing in the impact of the media on children and adolescents. Back then, media essentially meant television. Now it includes the vast array of "screens" kids are exposed to -- educational videos for toddlers, television, video games, Nintendo's Wii system, MySpace pages, all of the other temptations of the internet, and more.

I have become concerned about the ways these screens affect: brain development in growing children; the relentless consumerism and materialism in kids; their sexual promiscuity; the rising incidence of eating disorders and other health issues; the incidence of encounters kids have with sexual predators online, and many others.

Realizing that parents and educators are not going to change the world of screens, I have promoted teaching kids "Media Literacy;" that is, how to unravel the messages of screens and protect themselves from many of the negative effects.

I am married, have two grown daughters -- one an art teacher, the other a writer -- and two eleven-year-old grandchildren. I have worked with all of them, trying to make them screen-savvy. I want your children to be screen-savvy too.

Contact Information

Mary S. Larson
Email: watchitparents@gmail.com
Phone: 815-991-5101