Evolving Online Safety from Childhood to Adulthood with Amanda Lenhart

Larry hosts Amanda Lenhart to discuss her newest study for the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, where kids and parents used playful activities to surface challenges and brainstorm solutions for managing technology at home.

Lenhart explains a key takeaway: digital parenting is cyclical—families repeatedly research, adopt, “unbox,” and then continually manage devices as children mature and new tools arrive—creating exhaustion but also building experience parents can reuse. They compare tech safety to car safety (airbags, seat belts, car seats), arguing for stronger safety-by-design defaults alongside optional fine-grained controls.

They discuss shifting risks, moral panics, rapid tech change, platform incentives, social media age bans, and the importance of respectful, ongoing conversations focused on maturity signals, balance, and scaffolding kids toward independent digital adulthood.

00:00 Welcome to Doing Tech
00:29 Meet Amanda Lenhart
01:05 Inside the Cooney Study
01:40 Playful Co Design Methods
03:18 Why Younger Kids Matter
06:27 Joan Ganz Cooney Center
07:25 Parenting Tech Cycle
11:29 Exhausted Parents Burden
14:01 Safety by Design Defaults
16:38 How Tech Has Changed
17:49 Perjuvenile and Risk Fears
19:14 Media Narratives vs Data
21:34 Meta Verdict Turning Point
22:22 Why Change Fails Inside Big Tech
25:20 Tech Change Outpaces Research
26:41 Parent Talks Not Lectures
27:48 Maturity Signals For Devices
 29:37 Holding The Line With Teens
32:15 Bans And Digital Adulthood
33:26 Australia Under 16 Ban
35:26 Youth Pushback And Analog Trends
38:40 From Attention To Attachment AI
43:04 Parent Advice Balance Over Bans
45:31 Neurodivergent Kids And Gaming Wins
46:35 Closing Thoughts And Optimism