The Tech Radar: Kids, Screens & Online Safety for Parents

Nicholas D. West Tech LLC

What changed for kids online this week, and what to do about it tonight. The Tech Radar for Parents is a free 12-minute weekly briefing on kids' online safety, screen time, social media, AI chatbots, gaming and parental controls, for parents of kids ages 3 to 18. Every Monday we cover the apps your kids use, the new state laws and when they actually take effect, and the court cases, with every claim sourced and dated. No fear-mongering. Each episode ends with a short action plan: the settings to check and the conversations worth having at home.

  1. 3d ago

    Eight States Sue OpenAI Over ChatGPT and Kids

    Eight states took OpenAI to court on the same day, and what they want a judge to change about ChatGPT for kids goes well beyond a warning label. Plus a reported FTC probe of Roblox, a Florida family's lawsuit over the chat, and the appeals court ruling every state writing a kids' social media law just got. This week's poll: Which app worries you most right now? Vote in the Spotify app or at https://ndwtech.org/tech-radar/polls/october-12-2026?src=spotify 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988. 00:00 - Welcome: Eight States vs. ChatGPT 00:59 - The Good: Florida's Social Media Law Stands 02:42 - The Bad: Roblox Under a Microscope 04:02 - The Ugly: Eight States Sue OpenAI 06:05 - The Decoder Ring: Decoding the Headlines 07:16 - Your Weekly Action Plan 08:38 - Final Thoughts, This Week's Poll & Outro

  2. Oct 12

    ChatGPT for Teens Sent Parents Zero Alerts in Testing

    ChatGPT for Teens promised parents an alert if their kid was in crisis — so what happened when testers talked about self-harm for an hour? Plus New York's sealed-until-now allegation about a TikTok safety experiment, and why Florida doesn't want to wait for a verdict to cap teens at two hours a day. Question: Does your child use an AI chatbot like ChatGPT? Answer 1: Yes, and we've talked about it Answer 2: Yes, but we haven't talked about it yet Answer 3: No Answer 4: I'm not sure Type: Single choice Start: Monday, October 12, 2026 (episode release) End: Sunday, October 18, 2026, 11:59 PM CT 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988. 00:00 - Welcome: Three Stories, One Wednesday 01:06 - The Good: Florida Wants Meta's Limits Now 02:58 - The Bad: The Alarm That Didn't Ring 04:50 - The Ugly: The Control Group 06:52 - The Decoder Ring: Decoding the Headlines 08:08 - Your Weekly Action Plan 09:55 - Final Thoughts, This Week's Poll & Outro

  3. Oct 5

    Alabama Just Made TikTok Change the App. Here's the List

    Most weeks we report what somebody is thinking about doing. Not this week: Alabama's Attorney General walked out of a Montgomery courtroom with a signed list of things TikTok has to change about the app your kid is holding — a two-hour cap, a midnight lockout, and a blanket ban on cosmetic filters for teens. Plus a jury that found Facebook misled people on purpose 43,899,720 times, and the most-searched slang word of the year, which means nothing at all. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988. 00:00 - Welcome: A State Just Made TikTok Change the App 02:34 - The Good: Alabama's Eight Terms 08:04 - The Bad: Spokane Got the Grade Book Back 11:22 - The Ugly: A Few Thousand to 180,000 17:10 - The Decoder Ring: The #1 Word Means Nothing 20:43 - Your Weekly Action Plan 25:57 - Final Thoughts & Outro

  4. Sep 28

    Middle Schooler Made AI Nudes of Classmates. Kentucky Charged Him

    A police report landed in Henderson, Kentucky on the Thursday we recorded last week's episode — AI-generated nude photos of middle schoolers, passed around the school. By Monday a child was in a detention center facing four counts. Plus: Discord quietly decided how old your kid is, a second district in three weeks lost its grade book, and a government sued OpenAI over a school shooting. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988. 00:00 — Welcome: What Happened While I Was Recording 02:25 — The Good: Discord Picked an Age for Your Kid 06:06 — The Bad: Spokane Went Dark 09:40 — The Ugly: Henderson, Kentucky 14:10 — The Decoder Ring: Newly Official, Not New 18:08 — Your Weekly Action Plan 23:13 — Final Thoughts & Outro

  5. Sep 21

    The FBI Confirmed It: A School District's Student Data Was Stolen

    Springfield, Massachusetts went back to school Monday. On Tuesday evening the FBI told the district its data was gone — student addresses, ages, ethnicities and medical information — and a ransomware gang says it has the files. So far the credit monitoring is for staff. Plus: the thirteen California laws we missed by hours, the national survey that says the phone bans slipped while parents weren't looking, and the correction we owe you on Meta. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988. 00:00 — Welcome: The Correction, and What the FBI Told Springfield 02:54 — The Good: California Wrote It Down 06:18 — The Bad: The Phone Ban Slipped 08:43 — The Ugly: Springfield, Part Two 13:14 — The Decoder Ring: Five Terms, None of Them Slang 15:33 — Your Weekly Action Plan 17:59 — Final Thoughts & Outro

  6. Sep 13

    A Dr. Seuss Character Got 10+ Kids Arrested

    An AI-made Cat in the Hat, posted with a threat naming a real school, has put more than ten kids in handcuffs in at least eight states — including one in Andalusia, Alabama, where a Snapchat warrant ended in a confession. Then: the Massachusetts district that lost a whole week of school to a cyber incident, and the one thing the nurses couldn't see. Plus the promise we couldn't keep on Meta's New Mexico appeal, and why the field's top researchers just said the laws are ahead of the evidence. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988. 00:00 — Welcome: The Answer We Don't Have 01:56 — The Good: The Line Spreads, and the Public Is Already There 04:36 — The Bad: A Week Without School 06:59 — The Ugly: The Cat in the Hat 10:19 — The Decoder Ring: An Actual New Entry 12:40 — Your Weekly Action Plan 15:43 — Final Thoughts & Outro

  7. Sep 6

    600,000 Kids, No AI at School — and Two Corrections We Owe You

    New York City just told 600,000 kids they can't use generative AI at school this year — and banned companion chatbots in every grade. But the part that should change your Tuesday night is what the Meta settlement quietly exempts now that a judge has actually signed it. Two corrections to last week open the episode, because we got them wrong and you should hear it first. Plus: New Jersey's bell-to-bell phone ban is now genuinely in force, and a court ruling almost every headline got backwards. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988. 00:00 — Welcome: Two Corrections, and a School District 01:44 — The Good: New Jersey's Phone Ban Switches On 03:49 — The Bad: What the Settlement Quietly Exempts 05:39 — The Ugly: Three Companies Said Nothing 08:20 — The Decoder Ring: Five Things Reported Wrong 11:03 — Your Weekly Action Plan

  8. Sep 1

    Meta Settled in Eight Days. Here's What It Actually Agreed To

    Eight days into a trial I told you would run six to eight weeks, Meta settled with the states. Here is the sentence almost every headline dropped three words from: Meta agreed to pay at least $12.1 billion over ten years — that part is guaranteed — rising to $17.1 billion only if TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat adopt comparable terms. In exchange, five years of real product changes: a combined two-hour daily cap across Instagram and Facebook that only a parent can lift, mandatory pauses at 15, 60 and 90 minutes, feed access blocked midnight–6am, notifications silenced 10pm–7am, and no push notifications on school-year weekdays 8am–3pm. And the part that matters most for tonight: none of it is in effect. The settlement is proposed and, in California's Attorney General's words, "remains subject to court approval through entry of a consent judgment." Plus the five things about this story already being reported wrong — including two different courts that keep getting mixed up. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988.

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What changed for kids online this week, and what to do about it tonight. The Tech Radar for Parents is a free 12-minute weekly briefing on kids' online safety, screen time, social media, AI chatbots, gaming and parental controls, for parents of kids ages 3 to 18. Every Monday we cover the apps your kids use, the new state laws and when they actually take effect, and the court cases, with every claim sourced and dated. No fear-mongering. Each episode ends with a short action plan: the settings to check and the conversations worth having at home.

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