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Feeling inspired by Jordan Shapiro's interview on NPR with our former Spawned guest Anya Kamanetz , and reading his book for our upcoming interview with him on Spawned, I decided to let my tween daughter give TikTok (formerly Musical.ly)…

It's been a rough couple of weeks for YouTube, first with the news about their growing pedophile problem . And now, YouTube Kids is under fire. We know lots of parents, including us, have found a little sigh of relief letting kids watch …

In what seems to be a never ending issue with Facebook and privacy, the latest news is that Facebook has been receiving data from apps from users who do not even have a Facebook account. And one of the 11 apps that has been discovered so…

Over the years, we've written about many issues that parents need to be aware of when it comes to the content on YouTube . But this recent report from Wired should really throw the huge red flag of caution up for parents, particularly if…

Last week, we had a lively discussion about inappropriate follow requests on Instagram in our Out Tech Your Kids Facebook Group . Many parents bemoaned the challenges of trying to navigate this with their kids on Instagram, even on priva…

Since reading Anya Kamenetz's interview with Jordan Shapiro on NPR , I've made some heavy shifts in how I'm approaching screen time with my kids. For the years that they've been on video games, tablets and most recently, their own phones…

If we're all perfectly honest with ourselves, then we know that Facebook has presented many privacy issues for a long time now. We've been writing about Facebook privacy issues since we started Cool Mom Tech in 2010. That's nine years. N…

According to an article in the New York Times that just came out today, Mark Zuckerberg is planning to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. That's right, over the course of 2019 and into 2020, these apps will be reconfigured in …

From questionable Snapchat stories to gadgets that make our lives easier, we rounded up our top 10 most popular Cool Mom Tech posts of 2018. Happy New Year! Related: Our 10 most popular posts of 2017 10. How to figure out which categorie…

My daughter came home from a sleepover this past weekend asking if she could download Musical.ly (now known as TikTok). I've been hesitant about this app after hearing friends' kids with various issues, not to mention the stories we've s…

A few weeks ago, my youngest was angry with me about losing her iPad privileges, and in her fit of rage yelled "I bet you couldn't be without your phone for 12 hours." We all know that the truth hurts, but to hear it out of the mouth of …

We often get asked the best way for parents to manage their kid's screen time, and while we have our own opinions about screen time management, we never miss an opportunity to get another expert's opinion. That's exactly what Kristen did…

You've probably seen the letter "F" in the comments of a Facebook post. Or perhaps you've typed the word "Following" yourself, because when you comment, you'll get notifications of other comments and get to follow along. However, there's…

We've been fans of the YouTube Kids app , but admittedly when so many questionable videos were making it onto their little eyeballs, we were waiting for them to make some updates to give parents more control over what their kids were see…

Our friends over at Common Sense Media recently conducted a survey study of teens 13-17 years old, and we have to admit that the results are fascinating, and well, reassuring. If you have a tween or teen, it's worth taking the few minute…

If you suddenly see someone trying to call you from Instagram, don't freak out. It's the new Instagram video chat feature that just launched. Related: How to post photos from your Instagram Feed to your Instagram Story To make a call, yo…

If you spend any time on Instagram, then you've probably seen feed photos popping up in Instagram Stories . And no, I'm not talking about screenshots! Finally, you can post clickable photos from public feeds (either yours or someone else…

With the popularity of the Musical.ly app , it's no surprise that Facebook has jumped on the bandwagon with the launch of their new Lip Sync Live feature. Related: 12 risky apps parents should watch out for Similar to what folks share on…

I always say that when it comes to parenting, if I wasn't laughing, I'd be crying. Maybe that's why I love these funny Mother's Day cards that you still might be able to grab before Sunday if you hurry, or in a couple of cases, download …

As Twitter has just informed all 330,000,000 of its users in an apologetic but so far underreported post, you should really change your Twitter password right now, this very second. Not to be alarmist -- but out of an abundance of precau…

We've been fans of the YouTube Kids app ever since it launched a few years ago, but as more and more publishers are creating content on YouTube, it's not surprising that there have been some issues in terms of what ends up showing up as …

I recently stumbled upon Constantly Curious thanks to a friend who shared it in their feed and I haven't been able to tear myself away. Thankfully, these entertaining episodes are only a few minutes long, but wow, they're awesome. And ev…

Updated on 4/11/18 below Today, Facebook will be rolling out a feature to help you check to see if your data, along with around 87 million other people, was stolen by Cambridge Analytica. While we haven't seen anything on our own Newsfee…

If we didn't know before, we've certainly learned very recently that Facebook knows a whole lot about us. But today I discovered that they're assigning us to marketing categories, which are chosen based on the data gathered from your Fac…