EPISODE · May 30, 2026 · 52 MIN
25 Years of Research On Kids, Tech, and the Emotional Labor Parents Carry With Amanda Lenhart
from Parent Tech · host Andrew Hogan
Twenty years of research on kids and tech and a new report lead to an inescapable conclusion: managing technology in your family never really stops. It's a cycle –– and most of us are already in it.In this episode of Parent Tech, I sit down with Amanda Lenhart, lead researcher and author of the Family Tech Cycle report from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. She's spent more than two decades studying how kids and families use technology –– and she's raised four kids across very different tech eras herself.In today’s episode, we talk about:What the Family Tech Cycle actually is — and why it starts earlier than most parents thinkWhat happened when researchers asked kids to design their own dream phoneWhy hard time limits can backfire socially for kids — and what they actually want insteadThe financial realities of parenting around tech that don't get talked about enoughGenerative AI and the chatbot attachment problem — why it's already showing up in lawsuitsHow Amanda gave her own 12-year-old her first smartphone, what she allowed, what she didn't, and how it helped create more open conversations in the homeIn this episode:00:00 Introduction to Amanda Lenhart and the Family Tech Cycle Report01:45 How Kids Grow Up in Tech "Micro-Generations" — Even Within the Same Family04:00 From Instant Messaging to Social Media: 20 Years of Watching Kids Online08:30 How the Cultural Conversation Around Tech Has Gotten More Complex09:30 What Is the Family Tech Cycle and Why Does It Matter?10:00 The Co-Design Methodology: Letting Kids Build Their Dream Phone14:30 What Kids Actually Want: Fairness, Transparency, and Social Continuity17:00 Why Hard Time Limits Can Backfire Socially for Kids18:00 Why Parents Correct Kids — And What Gets Lost When They Do19:00 The Financial Realities of Parenting Around Tech21:00 Why Better Product Defaults Would Change Everything for Families23:30 Family Media Contracts: What They Are and How to Use Them24:00 The Script for Talking to Your Kid About Screen Time Rules26:30 Parenting in a Blended Family With Different Tech Philosophies27:00 The Joan Ganz Cooney Center and the Legacy of Sesame Street30:00 What Research Says About Educational Apps — and What Gets in the Way31:00 Generative AI and Kids: The Opportunities and the Real Risks35:00 AI Slop, Algorithmic Content, and What It's Doing to Young Children36:00 The Chatbot Attachment Problem — and Why It's Already Showing Up in Lawsuits39:00 Bifurcating AI Use Cases: Tutor vs. Therapist vs. Best Friend42:00 Amanda's Own Story: Giving Her 12-Year-Old Her First Smartphone47:00 How They Set Up the Phone — And Why It Took Six Hours49:00 YouTube as the New TV: How Amanda Thinks About It at Home51:00 The Goal: A Beautiful Childhood and a Functional Digital Adulthood
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Twenty years of research on kids and tech and a new report lead to an inescapable conclusion: managing technology in your family never really stops. It's a cycle –– and most of us are already in it. In this episode of Parent Tech, I sit down with Amanda Lenhart, lead researcher and author of the Family Tech Cycle report from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. She's spent more than two decades studying how kids and families use technology –– and she's raised four kids across very ...
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25 Years of Research On Kids, Tech, and the Emotional Labor Parents Carry With Amanda Lenhart
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