# 346: Internet Safety: Teaching Critical Thinking to Teenagers Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/parenting-tips-resources-and-strategies-for-moms-and-dads-of-children-teenagers-impactful-parenting-3419885/346-internet-safety-teaching-critical-thinking-to-teenagers Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/parenting-tips-resources-and-strategies-for-moms-and-dads-of-children-teenagers-impactful-parenting-3419885/346-internet-safety-teaching-critical-thinking-to-teenagers.md Podcast: [Parenting Tips for Moms and Dads of School-aged Children & Teenagers: The Impactful Parenting Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/parenting-tips-resources-and-strategies-for-moms-and-dads-of-children-teenagers-impactful-parenting-3419885) Published: 2026-07-01T11:09:38+00:00 Episode link: https://theimpactfulparent.podbean.com/e/346-internet-safety-teaching-critical-thinking-to-teenagers/ Audio file: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/ugidfcawvkm6yp9p/teenagers_social_media_7ynx5.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/parenting-tips-resources-and-strategies-for-moms-and-dads-of-children-teenagers-impactful-parenting-3419885/episodes/346-internet-safety-teaching-critical-thinking-to-teenagers Duration seconds: 2054 ## Resource Internet safety: Teaching Critical Thinking to Teenagers If a stranger walked up to your teenager on the street and tried to manipulate what they believed, you’d step in instantly. But it’s happening every single day, completely undetected, right through their screens. In this eye-opening episode of The Impactful Parent, host Kristina Campos welcomes Dr. Mari Davies, a senior lecturer in education and author of Teaching Critical Thinking to Teenagers. Together, they pull back the curtain on the multi-billion-dollar algorithms engineered to capture your teen’s developing brain. While tracking apps and screen limits offer temporary fixes, the real secret to long-term internet safety is building ”cognitive immunity” through critical thinking. In this episode, Kristina and Dr. Davies break down: The Algorithm Advantage: What parents are truly up against when a teen opens TikTok or Instagram, and how these apps weaponize personal demographics [02:43]. The Teenage Brain on Social Media: Why a natural dip in adolescent dopamine makes teenagers uniquely vulnerable to online risks and the ”imaginary audience” [05:27]. The Street Smarts Model: A deep dive into the 4 core pillars—Respect for Self, Reasons, Difference, and Change—and how they apply to a scrolling feed [11:55]. Spotting AI and Fake News: Dr. Davies’ number one rule of thumb for handling outrageous influencer content and advanced voice/image deepfakes [19:17]. The Power of Healthy Arguing: Why teaching your kids (especially girls!) to respectfully debate and voice their opinions at home keeps them safe from real-world predators [24:07]. Stick around until the end, where Dr. Davies shares a single, effortless question you can ask your teen today to immediately trigger their critical thinking muscles [32:17]! You don’… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/parenting-tips-resources-and-strategies-for-moms-and-dads-of-children-teenagers-impactful-parenting-3419885/episodes/346-internet-safety-teaching-critical-thinking-to-teenagers/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/parenting-tips-resources-and-strategies-for-moms-and-dads-of-children-teenagers-impactful-parenting-3419885/346-internet-safety-teaching-critical-thinking-to-teenagers.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.