Our Work Groups are collaborative communities organized around common interests, goals, or professions. Participants decide on scope and direction and projects are run by volunteer leaders. Our Work Groups produce high-impact projects that make a difference and provide members with meaningful networking opportunities.
Educators and advocates are working to create programs, projects, and resources that help teachers, childcare providers, and parents identify the risks of screen use in early childhood environments. One of the first projects is creating a “Screen-Free” or “Screen Aware” designation for schools that maintain play, nature, and physical activity as priorities for early childhood settings.
This Work Group is designed for mental health professionals who are concerned about how kids’ screen overuse affects their well-being. Projects include a letter to the American Psychological Association (APA) regarding the unethical practice of persuasive design to increase kids' use of ad-supported devices. Fact sheets and a directory of mental health professionals knowledgeable about screen overuse are also planned.
This group works on specific solutions that parents and teachers can use to advocate for limited screen use in schools. Topics such as "personalized learning," the gamification of education, and corporate-sponsored digital curricula are addressed. This group recently released the acclaimed Screens in Schools Action Kit, to help parents and teachers advocate against edtech overuse.
If you are a professional who works with parents, you can’t help but be aware that the child’s screen use is a major issue for families. This group, composed of parent coaches and parent educators, works together to create programs, resources, talking points, and fact sheets that professionals can use and share with parents about the impact of screen use and how to set boundaries and create solutions that preserve childhood and relationships.
InterfaithThis group supports all faith traditions that wish to understand how media is shaping children’s spiritual lives. They work to empower people to approach leadership in their churches, mosques, synagogues, and other places of worship, many of whom have not considered the amount of time their youth are spending with digital devices rather than with their families and friends.
This group works to promote a new agenda where kids' rights to a safe digital media experience is paramount. Work group members recognize the threats to kids' health and safety from cyberbullying and unsafe social media challenges, and work to hold tech companies accountable, educate families and teachers, and more.
This group's focus is on helping kids develop a stronger relationship with nature as an antidote to media dependence. This group shares high-quality videos and articles about the link between screen time and nature deficit disorder.