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This week's Washington Post article about the teenage boy sextortion scam by Chris Moody is all I've been thinking about. In part because I know a kid who was targeted in this way, and it was a terrible situation. But to learn that this …

I'm not sure about you, but I'm getting bombarded with ads on Instagram, whether it's in the feed or in the middle of my stories. Argh! Most of the stuff I don't really mind (well, maybe my wallet does), but there are things, like weight…

Recently, Meta announced it would be launching new parental safety controls for teens in the form of tools and resources for both the Instagram social media app and their Meta Quest VR gaming headsets. The goal is to help parents better …

We're all talking about "that" Wall Street Journal article about Instagram: Facebook Knows It's Toxic for Teen Girls . You're probably talking about it. Or your kids are. I know it's all we've been seeing in our social feeds this week ar…

A few months ago, we shared how to set up the Close Friends feature on Instagram , just in case you’ve got your kids (and their friends) following you and wanted to share something that they couldn’t see. Of course, whenever you do that,…

We used to say "photos or it didn't happen," but it feels like 2020 is all about "filters or it isn't Instagram." You may have noticed folks you follow using wacky filters -- or oddly flattering filters that bathe them in a beautifully h…

We're going into our 10th year of Cool Mom Tech and our 2nd year of our Out Tech Your Kids Facebook group that's almost at 4500 members! We know, we can't believe it either. Every year, we share our 10 most visited posts on Cool Mom Tech…

With someone who's got two teens on Instagram, I was pleased to hear that they recently added Restrict, an anti-bullying feature that, as Instagram describes, "allows users to quietly protect their account while still keeping an eye on t…

I often like adding Boomerangs to an Instagram Story to help change things up from still photos. But then, I either have to go shoot a Boomerang in Instagram (and figure out what to shoot) or open the Boomerang app itself. Not one of lif…

It's not just tweens and teens who might be using Finstas (Fake-Instagram accounts) to throw off their parents. We parents whose kids and their friends follow us on Instagram have probably considered using them in case we want to freely …

Every so often, you probably see an Instagram name that pops up in wedding script, some gothic type, or even upside down, and if you've wondered how you change the font on your Instagram bio, it's so simple! There are apps you can downlo…

We couldn't create an Ultimate Guide to Digital Parenting without including tips about how to keep your kids safe on social media. After all, for our tweens and teens, the Internet is social media, and they could sooner give up the games…

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 …

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…

If you noticed a new little TV icon at the top of your Instagram feed, then you've already discovered IGTV (Instagram TV), a new app from Instagram that allows users to upload longer form videos for their followers to watch. And yes, it …

If you were already a big fan of the Instagram Story poll feature, but felt like it was a little limiting (why only two answers, Instagram?), they just launched a new emoji slider poll that might just give you the voting nuance you were …

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 …

It's no surprise that Vestaboard caught our eye. It combines the nostalgia of split-flap boards many of us have seen on our train travels (30th Street Station in Philadelphia, holla!), with the letter boards pretty much everyone, includi…

Last year, I fell in love with the A Color Story app for photo editing, and named it my cool pick of the week on our Spawned podcast . Just this weekend, they launched A Design Kit , their equally fun, friendly, and really wonderful app …