A realistic way to protect kids from social media? Find a middle ground

Larissa May, of HalfTheStory, in New York’s Madison Square Park. The site works with young people to build better relationships with technology, on their own terms, starting in middle school even before some kids have a device. To May, abstinence is not the answer to teens’ problems with social media. — AP

Ahmed Othman isn’t on TikTok and doesn’t want to be.

He and his younger sister got iPhones when they were in eighth and seventh grade respectively, but with no social media, just iMessage. Their parents, who are both computer scientists, spent the next year teaching them about social media, bombarding them with studies about its effects on teen mental health.