There are very few television shows that can stand up to the age-split test in our house. Avatar – The Last Airbender, on Nickelodeon, is one can hold a six-year-old and a thirteen-year-old spellbound (with parents glancing in from the background). So it’s very good news that the live-action movie being developed by Paramount Pictures and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, is scheduled to be released this summer.

An interesting controversy has developed around this movie that, to me, demonstrates both the wide appeal of this story, as well as…

The middle school crowd is crazy for YouTube. I mean, if you don’t know who Fred is, you haven’t been paying attention! My son has jumped on the bandwagon, and is a frequent video poster and viewer. (The Flip camera he received for Christmas a couple of years ago gathered dust — literally — for more than a year before it became indispensable about six months ago.) His activity is focused on creating videos — mostly “instructional” but sometimes just opinions — about his hobbies (primarily fishing and street hockey). Once…

I had always wondered how otherwise-savvy kids get duped into rendezvousing with people they meet online (sometimes to tragic end).  But I recently learned that most predators will communicate with a child for three to six months before suggesting an in-person meeting. Over such an extended period, they are able to build a rapport and a credible story about who are (but really aren’t). They know the latest music and interests of children. They listen empathetically. Only very gradually do they interject any sexually explicit chat.

I found this European site,…

A survey released in December by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that 4% of teens ages 12-17 who own a cell phone say they have sent sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images or videos of themselves to someone else via text messaging, a practice also known as “sexting”; 15% say they have received such images of someone they know via text message.

“Teens explained to us how sexually suggestive images have become a form of relationship currency,” said Amanda Lenhart,

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