Read the full transcript of Episode 90 of the NAIS New View EDU podcast, which features Yvette Renteria of Common Sense Media. She talks with host Morva McDonald about how her team is helping educators and parents balance how to leverage technology and innovation to improve educational outcomes while also keeping students safe and thriving in a fast-paced digital world.
Morva McDonald: As a parent of four young people, I am most familiar with Common Sense Media’s Parent Guides and Ratings of movies. As an educator, I’ve trusted them for information and resources focused on developing digital citizenship with kids.
I’m excited to talk with Yvette Renteria, who leads Common Sense Media's education, research, family, and community engagement teams.
With 25 years of experience in schools and nonprofits—including roles as a classroom teacher, school principal, and deputy chief of innovation at the district level—she brings both rigorous research and deep practitioner instincts to one of the most urgent questions facing independent schools: how do we help kids thrive in an increasingly complex digital world?
Hi Yvette, welcome to New View EDU. I'm really excited to talk with you. I want to start off with kind of understanding a little bit about why you do what you do. So you've been a classroom teacher, you've been a principal, you've been the deputy chief of innovation, and now you're the chief program officer. And I think kind of one of the country's most trusted organizations on kids and technology. So what thread runs through all of those roles for you?
Yvette Renteria: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Morva, I'm really excited to be here. For me, I grew up from immigrant parents. They migrated from Mexico, farm workers in central California. For them, they've always preached education to me. And that really meant like that was our way to a better life. And through that, grandma became a janitor at a school. My mom became a secretary. My older sister is in her 25th year of being an elementary school teacher.
Morva McDonald: That's amazing.
Yvette Renteria: It was just like in my DNA. And then I was like, I don't want any part of this. But what I realized is like being a part of that and also the idea of serving was really kind of my passion. And I also bring that because now that I have had decades in education, what I recognize is most important is just equity and being from a small, rural town farming community, predominantly Spanish speaking community, seeing kind of what they have and what they currently have and what they don't. And now being in a big city, seeing what is accessible here, what is not. I'm like, how do we build these bridges so that every kid in our country and even globally has access and resources that will truly make them thrive and they could be whatever they want to be. And it goes back to like thinking about the kindergartener in our elementary school who wants to be all the things, right? A doctor, a veterinarian, a firefighter, and it's us adults who have the power to support them to be those things.
Morva McDonald: I really appreciate that. I think that resonates with me and I know that it will resonate with a lot of folks who are listening. Just that really deep, deep commitment, right, to kids and how it is that you can help them as adults, whatever organization you're inside of, kind of reach that potential. So thank you for that.
Yvette Renteria: Yeah. And you know, it's interesting, Morva, because I think about it and I'm like, and it's not easy, right? It's hard. And the nuggets and the gems of happiness and success don't come as frequently as the challenges, but that's actually the beauty of this work.
Morva McDonald: No, it's not easy. It is not always easy.
Yvette Renteria: And the nuggets and the gems of happiness and success don't come as frequently as the challenges, but that's actually the beauty of this work.
Morva McDonald: Yeah, for sure. Common Sense Media reaches more than 150 million users and 1.4 million educators a year. I, that's just a massive amount of people that you guys touch. And for school leaders who may know the organization from its ratings and reviews, can you give us a sense of kind of the full scope of what Common Sense does, and specifically what your team is focused on right now?
Yvette Renteria: Yes, so, you know, oftentimes when I'm out and about and I say I work for Common Sense Media, people say, I use you to find my Friday night movie or I use you to like see—
Morva McDonald: —That's what I have used it for.
Yvette Renteria: Yes, exactly. And so, you know, and I want to sit there and be like, we're so much more. And we are.
So I think a couple of areas where we branch out from not just simply movies and reviews from our mission and our core, we're all about supporting kids of a digital age. And that means protecting them and that means preparing them. And so when it comes to this work, yes, we're movies and we're reviews. So we do want to protect and prepare in that respect.
In addition to that, we have our advocacy work where we're doing a lot of work in legislation, supporting efforts to ensure that there's safeguards, whether it's safeguards against whatever the tech, the technology companies are creating. Whether it's addictive design that we want to prohibit our kids to be a part of, to supporting and sitting in on consortiums and panels to support parents and like when they see scary information, like how do know they're not going to see that and what can we do to keep tech companies accountable for protecting them?
We also provide advice to families. So we know that technology, oftentimes our kids know way more than we do. And so we try to one, give them insight on like, what are the tips? What are the trends out there? And then developmentally, how should we be engaging with our kids? What are the questions we're asking? What are the ways we're engaging with them?
And then much of my work is in the education space. And so really we've developed a kindergarten through 12th grade digital literacy and well-being curriculum. And what's interesting is we've been in this game for about 20 years and we started off with digital citizenship and we're starting to evolve into digital literacy because it's now everything we do has digital life in it. And then in addition to that, cause we recognize now there's this component of keeping our kids healthy mentally, emotionally, physically. So we develop lessons, professional development trainings, resources, and family resources that could go home through schools.
And then I would say all of this is grounded under our research. We've been doing independent research for 20 years around what does kids’ life and technology look like. So everything from what is a zero to eight year olds, how do they engage with technology? Being able to catch that over time. What do teens and tweens use?
Morva McDonald: Yeah, yeah, the long view there is really, really helpful.
Yvette Renteria: Yes. It is really interesting. I'm happy to highlight some of those data points. I will say the newer research that we've been doing around AI, AI companions, access to pornography, gambling and how the game of gambling has shifted now that it's online. The newer stuff coming up, financial literacy, because a lot of that, the financial literacy also there's opportunities and challenges online when it comes to that. Our research really grounds us in all the work that we kind of share to our public.
Morva McDonald: Yeah, just to piggyback on that a little bit, in your view, given what you know of the research and the data over such a long period of time, talk to us a little bit. I think we can make some guesses here, but it's great to hear from an expert like yourself. Talk to us about what you think has changed the most dramatically in the last two to three years.
Yvette Renteria: Yeah, I would say for us, what we have seen is, you know, we've seen a constant incline of kids being online, but now I think what has been a real shift as of two, three years ago has been AI and the shift from adults being aware of what's going on and trying to either mitigate it, support it, or find opportunities to engage with kids to now, like as adults, we don't know what's going on online anymore. And our kids are really driving this, driving the direction. They're the ones almost introducing adults to AI, whether it be an app, a chatbot, the way they're getting visuals, the way they're accessing resources, that is very new. And so we have found ourselves shifting from, hey, here's how you engage with your kids, whether it be an educator or teacher to let me tell you what's happening and trying to do it as quickly as possible, trying to bring adults up to speed to where kids are.
Morva McDonald: That's an interesting transition, right? That in one point in time, it's something that I think schools, as you can see probably from your vantage point, are also trying to manage, right? Which is like, how do we help the adults? How do we as adults in schools catch up a little bit with kids and also orient them in ways that are productive, right? It's a both and strategy, I think.
Yvette Renteria: And, Morva, I will tell you too, like something that I grapple with as somebody who's been an educator, like none of the adults, at least now—it will soon shift—have experienced this educational world that our kids do. Like the idea of getting to school, getting on the computer, getting online, doing some work and then, you know, pen to paper as well. And just kind of the mix of that day. And so, I mean, shout out to educators who are navigating this new space of how to teach.
But in addition to that, I think there is this really interesting dynamic that I see in our work right now, which is the connection between educators and parents. Because we often, as adults, draw from our own experience. What was it like being a fourth grader when I was a fourth grader? What was it like being a high schooler? But that is so different. And so educators are really kind of in it, evolving, changing, using whatever strategies that are new and different.
And I think there is this, like, interesting… almost disconnect between what parents see and perceive and think and then what's actually happening in the classroom that we're really focused on figuring out what, how do we bridge that. So there's more awareness so that we're all collectively supporting our kids.
Morva McDonald: Yeah, it's been a huge disconnect in some ways. Disconnect sounds like we haven't been paying attention. I think we've been paying attention. It's been so fast, right, that we feel disconnected sometimes as institutions to kids. About what's going on.
You came out with a report in 2024, right, about the dawn of the AI era, right? And a year, two years basically is a really, really long time. What are you seeing now, as schools are trying to manage that transition with kids, how has that changed in the last few years? What are the kinds of things you're noticing? And maybe what are highlights or pockets of like, strategies or innovations that you think are particularly promising?
Yvette Renteria: I think about that dawn of AI era, like, and I did a presentation two years ago and I'm like, even thinking, going back to that time, I'm like, I wouldn't say anything that I said then now. And I'll just highlight and unpack that a little bit, which is like at that moment, plagiarism was kind of that pivotal point of the conversation, right? How do we prevent students from plagiarizing using AI tools? And when we did that report, we found that in that report, kids were not just using it to plagiarize. They were actually using it almost like a Google search. They were looking at it as a way to search for resources.
They also weren't given any direction. When we asked students, you, you know, are you given direction? I think it was something like 87% said we have, we were not given any direction either from school nor home. Right. And even fewer parents knew that their kids were using AI at that time.
And so then we got into really plagiarism. And then when we looked at more broadly who the student body was, we found there was also a disaggregated proportion of black and brown kids getting accused of plagiarism in our white, than their white counterparts, which was another area to unpack. And so what it really came down to when we talked about this work at the time, was like, we need to provide training and understanding of what AI is before we can even support.
We are now, fast forward to now, in this space of like, policies are being created. They're being created and they need to be. And I don't know how well they're being communicated. But it's more about communication. I think policies could be made, you know, you got to put it in front of the board, but in order for policies to be made, we need to ensure that the adults understand what it is. I know as a former principal, like number one, safety is above all. We need to keep our kids safe. And there's a lot of question marks around that when it comes to AI in schools. And so I appreciate the difficulty in creating policy. And I think there's a way to engage those stakeholders and community members. And now you're seeing such a big spectrum of where people are on that timeline of like, just knowing what it is to really engaging it with, to build creative tools. So that's kind of on the policy adult side.
On the kid side, it's really interesting because we weren't even talking about AI companions and chatbots. And we had this data point that we did, we did some survey and it was like, 72% of kids were engaging with AI chatbots. There has been now more data from the Rithm Project around what does that really mean? Is that like, are they engaging with it for relationships? And what we're finding is it's quite scaffolded from like, a small group of, percentage are actually engaging on a relational level, and others are still using it as like information gathering, knowledge. Like I need access quickly because I can't have it. My teacher's not with me or my friend is not with me or my parent’s not with me.
So we're starting to see a lot more of that disaggregation. And I'll just kind of close it with this idea that what I'm getting from it and what my team gets from it is like, our young people know a lot more than I think we thought they knew. And so like it's almost humbling as an adult to be like, no, you know what, we took out this plagiarism. They don't know it, but they very much know it and they're seeing the awareness in that. And so it's like, we have an interesting space as adults to catch up to them.
Morva McDonald: You all have, I think, done such a good job for a really long time centering youth voice in your research. And this is something that I think you're alluding to actually right now. And as an educator and as a parent, it's something that I think is really central to how we understand what's happening. Talk to us, kind of unpack, if you will, a little bit about what kids themselves are saying that adults, including school leaders, most need to hear. Like, what are they trying to tell us about the experiences that they're having right now?
Yvette Renteria: I have a huge benefit of sitting in all focus groups with kids. So we do some research and I can sit in, I'm listening to some of these stories they tell us. And I think there's a few themes that I have heard across the way.
One is like, this is our world. So we often say their digital life, or their digital world. And we often hear students and kids in this conversation be like, no, this is our life. Like we don't see a separation between digital life and real life.
The second thing we often hear is, things are being done to us. And I think this is a longstanding situation, even when I was a teacher, right? Like things are being done to us, whether it's a parent or a teacher. But I think what's interesting in this moment of time is like, things are being done to them when quite frankly, they might know more than what those policymakers or those decision makers are doing to them. So there's like a little bit of a frustration or like, leave me alone.
The third thing that I will highlight is something that was really interesting to me. And I'll own that this is like one anecdotal story, but we were trying to unpack this data point. We ended up receiving this data point that 33% of the people we surveyed, 33% of 13 to 17 year olds that we surveyed around AI companions said that their communication with AI chat bot was equal or better than that of a communication with a human.
And so as we were unpacking that with this focus group, one of the kids was like—
Morva McDonald: —I just want to say right there, like every educator who's listening to that right now is just like trying to take a deep breath, I think.
Yvette Renteria: Yeah. Right. And so I was too, I was really thrown back by that. And as we're talking to this focus group, I recall this one person was like, why do you think AI is maybe better or the same as a human? And his response was really interesting to me. And it actually has me really still digesting this, which is like, how do I know what's different? It gives me an emotion that gives me emotion of what I would be doing talking to a friend about the same question I asked. And it was giving me reassurance. It was making me feel validated. It was making me feel heard. And sometimes I go to my friend and they'll just walk away or they'll make fun of me. So I felt a sense of connection more than I did as a person.
And again, I own that this is one story, but that was like really a thoughtful answer that I'm still trying to grapple with as an older person who doesn't, didn't live in that world at that age. But those were kind of the three themes that kind of came up. You know, it's being done to me. I know what's going on. And this is like my world, my connection, my relationships, and they might be online or offline.
Morva McDonald: Help me understand a little bit when you say the kids are saying it's being done to me, what you're referring to about what's being done to them, what's the thing? Is it the rules that are being done to them? Is it that adults are trying to constrain all of their experience? Say a little bit more about that.
Yvette Renteria: It's that I think, I do feel, and I kind of said this in the top of the conversation, is like, they almost know more than we do. And I think they find, and what we're hearing in some of our focus groups is like, they are in the driver's seat. And I actually, as an adult, trust them to be in the driver's seat. Like, they see where those dangerous potential spirals exist.
They understand doom scrolling. They're even giving themselves their own, like, strategies to either mitigate a feeling or a thought. And so they're living it, and they're kind of almost like trying these things out on their own. And so I think one of the things in some of these focus groups or some of these conversations we have are really centered around like, we know what we're doing and we're not, and what I don't hear is like, we know all the answers. We don't hear that, but it's like, we're navigating our own life.
And, I, we were at a student conference, I say about two years ago. And it was interesting because about two years ago, I almost felt this sense of frustration with adults. Like you guys are doing all of these, you're creating these policies and you're trying to solve the wrongs that by the way, you all made for us. and we want to take our, take our own power in our own hands, because it's our life. So it's kind of that essence within those answers that I was hearing.
Morva McDonald: It's an expression of a lot of agency actually on their part and whether adults trust that or not or sometimes that gets us in all kinds of trouble, of course, like complicated, as a complicated experience.
Yvette Renteria: That's right.
Morva McDonald: I want to lean into something there that I think is related to other work that you all have done, which is about the relationship between social media use and mental health. And you have this kind of influx of AI in the last few years, obviously, the use of chatbots. What are you learning about that? How is that changing or not changing, in your view, over the course of the last few years?
Yvette Renteria: Yeah, social media has brought another sense of complexity. We often talk about, and I will say this as a former middle school principal, like I'll use just kind of that because we could talk about this in so many different age development levels. But, you know, in middle school as a principal, you already come with pressures, of all the pressures, whether it's the health, like the health of puberty to social pressures, to academic pressures and what's going to be, you're starting to think about future in a different way. But it was all kind of contained in your like, surrounding life without, without social media or online life.
Now, and we did, we did a project with the center for digital thriving out of Harvard, and it was highlighting the different types of pressures kids have within their life now, now that they're online. And it's like this pressure and I'm going to not be able to name them all, but like the appearance pressure, right? The apparent, the, and you're seeing some you know, documentaries about this, like to look fit and look, you know, strong or whatever the, the, the physique is that you need, to the pressure to always post, to look relevant and need to show that you're about something. You know, whether it's a cause like climate change or like I am out and about with my friends all the time, there's a pressure to show success in various ways.
So what we've seen over time is the need to show, like the pressures have mounted and they're almost segmented. So you got to show up in all of these different types of ways all the time. So now your identity has not just been like, here's who I am. Here's what makes me happy. Here's how I walk in this world. But now it's like, here's how I walk in this physical world. And now I have to walk in all these other paths into my online world. So we see that really kind of come to life in a lot of our research.
Morva McDonald: It's an interesting way to think about it, about the multitude of pressures and the, like what you were saying earlier about kids saying like, this is our life, right? And now the life is all of these pressures that are amplified, right? By their social media existence that they feel as though they need to manage and take care of, which I think we can see.
Yvette Renteria: And Morva, can I add one more thing about this too, which is like, we have used social media as a means to communicate. You know, we were, we were talking to students and they're like, Oh, I got to find out if I practice and I find out on my phone, I have to find out if, you know, there's, if I, you know, I'm going to get picked up and I find out on my phone. So it's also a functionality tool, not just simply a tool to show my identity. And so like, so that has become a little more complex too. Um, so this idea of like, well then how do you manage it has become really complex.
Morva McDonald: It's a part of our daily lives, right? And so we use it, all of us, all of us, we all use it in ways that are parts of our daily life. So it's hard to annex it entirely, I think, which makes the management of it little bit more complicated. I think you're talking about that.
Yvette Renteria: That's right. That's right.
Morva McDonald: Earlier you talked about the shift that I think you all are making, and tell me if I'm wrong, from kind of thinking about digital citizenship, right, to digital literacy. I know from my own experience in schools and schooling that digital citizenship has sometimes been treated as kind of a one-time assembly or a unit in a health class, right? What in your view is that looking like now as schools embed kind of digital literacy, if you will, as part of the core curriculum, as part of the whole school experience that kids are in. Where have you seen promising practices related to that? Help us think about that.
Yvette Renteria: Yeah, Morva, I think it's all…One, I think it's all over the place. I think two, there are different policies sprouting up everywhere when we come when we think about it at the highest level. From either like cell phone bands in New York to coming to California, or like, Connecticut has a media literacy. So it's interesting when you see the national picture of what it means to go into schools and into districts and into classrooms.
In practice, we find it to be really challenging when we engage with our users. And these are users who are, again, we're free, you know, we're not required in most places. And yet, educators will always tell us, it's really advantageous to teach this. This is what it means to like, build a whole child. And yet, how do you fit it in this day of like, increasing demands?
So I'll highlight a few areas where I see some success, like Chicago public schools. They've really focused in and leaned into AI literacy. So not digital literacy altogether, but like they're focusing on AI literacy where they have, I believe their middle to high school kids, getting all AI literacy lessons. And they found a spot and I can't remember where, so I think it's in their computer sciences classes where they're like, we need to teach this for all of our kids. And in addition to that, we're going to give training to all of our teachers. And so they did that in the beginning of this last year. They're going to do it again this year. And they're creating almost a pathway for their educators, not only to get training, but to increase in their own, like in their, in their salary range because of the training they get.
Then you have a state like Connecticut, who is requiring media literacy. And they are requiring media literacy and what's challenging there is they haven't really figured out how it fits in. And so, you know, Common Sense Media is going in to support schools and districts, but it looks different. And it's so interesting as a former educator, like your school, your classroom, your district is always the most unique thing, right? Like the, the you'll take it, you'll grab, but you always need to personalize it for whatever your demographic and needs are. And so I think what we're finding in Connecticut is just that. Media literacy is required at a state level, but it looks very different in every school. And that requirement is like, yes, teach it, but how you teach it has really changed over time.
And then you go somewhere like Omaha, who like, they've hired somebody to be in the district, really supporting on the ground, like what does it mean to bring digital literacy into the entire district so that every student in the school is getting something, from the kindergartener who knows how to use devices in healthy ways, to the fourth grader who's starting to build emails and creating strong passwords, to the middle schoolers who are understanding what parasocial relationships are online, to the high schooler who are starting to do college and career readiness and understanding what digital life and reputation and footprint looks like. So you have something like that in Omaha.
But I will say, even in talking to classroom teachers, to fit it in is really hard. So, you know, we see it in library in elementary schools. We've seen it in advisory and middle schoolers. We see it with health teachers and high schoolers. But there's not really a standard way to bring it in. And again, I continually shout out to our educators who have so much to cover within the short amount of time they have with students.
Morva McDonald: The challenge, right, of how you take something like this and you attend to it and integrate it in the content of a school, whether that's an independent school or a whole district is always a challenge. We have the same, it replicates actually, it reflects how over time we've tried to navigate, manage, sometimes have been really successful, sometimes not, with the work around equity and inclusion, right?
Sometimes it's in a class, sometimes it's here, it exists in this space and we've struggled. And I think we will continue to struggle, but we're struggling with building that systems approach. And you can see the same, it's the same kind of problem. The content of what's happening is different. So that's something to really think about. Independent schools, you know, arguably have an advantage, right? They sit on their own. They're autonomous institutions to some degree. And they're grappling just like every school with questions about phone policies and social media on campus, how to think about AI, all the things you've talked about.
If a head of school asked you where to start, not where to eventually get to, but where to genuinely begin the work around this, what would you suggest?
Yvette Renteria: Yeah, I feel like what really, and that, you know, I feel one of the really important pieces of starting is just a listening session. You know, we've worked with a couple of independent schools who have, for example, who have really great parent groups, you know, who are thinking about this, you know, not only like, how do you build that bridge, but how do home and school support one another? And like, you know, taking the time to listen to that, because as a head of school, you're thinking about so much. So like, allow somebody else to do some of the thinking for you.
I think, you know, thinking about what your, who your stakeholders are and doing the listening session, whether it's parents, students, teachers that are directly working with, you know, students in the classroom on a daily basis, and then just system level independent, other independent schools, to hear what they're doing. I mean, I know as a former principal, I would say my secret sauce was making sure I connected with other principals and like, what are you all doing? Save me some time here and help me and share your documents and your resources and your plans.
So that's what I think happens first because everything we're talking about, Morva, it's like not a one size fits all, you know? And I think that's what's important and also complex.
Morva McDonald: Yeah, it's highly contextualized to some degree, but there have to be lessons learned right across institutions or across the field.
You know, it's a little bit of a top down and a bottom up approach to this, right? The top down being like building policies and practices at the institutional level. And then the bottom up is listening to kids, trying to understand what kids’ use is, thinking about teaching in that space, right?
And talk to me a little bit more about what you think the balance is there. Because you hear kids saying, right, like, you're trying to tell us what to do, you're trying to, right? And we think, well, policies are really important because they set the container. So just help us think a little bit about that tension, right, between developing those policies at the institutional level and allowing for this kind of organic experience to happen, because it's kind of overwhelming all of us to a certain extent. Help us think about that tension a little bit more.
Yvette Renteria: Yeah. I think about this when I was first becoming a principal, remember this activity we would do where we'd almost draw a stick figure as the kid. And you're like, what's everything you want for this kid? And know, you're like, I want them to be confident. I want them to be like, at grade level or above. And I think a little bit in that term now, like when we, it's important as we think about this is like, what do we want from a kid? Like, what is it that we really are hoping kids are building?
And at Common Sense, we think about four mindsets. We think about creative, critical thinking. So we want kids to be critical thinkers. They can think for themselves, they can think out of the box, we can think differently in whatever that means. We want them to be creative. And I think that's something that was really important to us because we're not an organization that says no tech at all. And there's opportunities, like, many, most kids love it, and all the different things. And so like, we do want to enhance this opportunity to be creative. We want them to be curious, you know, I think it's because everything is so accessible so quickly. Like there, there is a risk of losing that curiosity. So it's like, how do you continually build that curiosity in a world where everything's at your fingertips all the time so quickly? And then the last thing we talk about is human connection.
Morva McDonald: It's such a good essential question. The question of how do you continue to build curiosity in the world where everything is at your fingertips? It's a lovely essential question to be asking even an individual, but also just like a school. How do we answer that question? How do we help ourselves answer that question?
Yvette Renteria: Yeah, no. in fact, I own too, like somebody will be like, what's, you know, what's this question? I'll answer it really quickly. I'm like, actually, I should sit with that, you know, and allow myself to think through that, but I don't. So yes.
And the last one is human connection. What does that human connection look like and feel like? And so I think that's what keeps us balanced, at Common Sense Media, is like, when we think about those four mindsets,I think it's not like no or yes. It's like, what's that lever of usage so that we still maintain those four mindsets? And that's really what our center is.
Morva McDonald: The mindsets are really helpful guiding principles, or common, of course, they're familiar. Those will be familiar to school people. Those are familiar ideas, right? But leveraging those and making decisions and thinking about kids.
Share with me, when you look forward, it's hard to imagine, you look forward a year or two years. What are ways in which you feel particularly optimistic about education's role in helping us navigate this space?
Yvette Renteria: I sit in these focus groups and I listen to students, like I said, I'm so optimistic. They know, I think about this, I'm like, as a seventh grader myself, even my former seventh graders, the way they articulate this world is beautiful, to be honest with you. I just, I really do believe that our students, our kids will be OK.
They're going to, because they are...forming their thoughts and their opinions, and they are utilizing strategies, and they are trying things. And I do, they're even highlighting the risks and the concerns with their own mental wellness. They're downloading the apps that keep them offline. They're doing the things. And so that makes me hopeful.
And there's even like student groups in schools that are being formed and organizations to keep kids healthy online and to like, bring awareness. And so that is super exciting to me, especially as I think a lot of companies are going, you know, supercharged, fast track, do all the things to keep kids online. You actually have these young people like, I know you're trying to create these designs to keep me online and I'm doing things to not. And I think that's just so powerful.
I think the one thing that's a bit challenging, and I say this because we're in it right now at Common Sense Media, is like, even our brand new curriculum, we've done a lot around media literacy and understanding what's real and what's not. And we've provided educators with strategies on supporting kids on like, how do you go online and find out what's real or not? And that's becoming fuzzier and blurrier every day, it feels like. And that to me, worries me a bit, is like, how are we going to know what's real and what's not? And I'll say that with a caveat of like, we talk about students, but my own parents are probably the worst actors in this, where they think everything is real, right? But I think that, that worries me.
Morva McDonald: Yeah, the distinction, the line of distinction is so blurry. As I, I started earlier in the podcast, that I have four kids, and so I rely on them. They're actually much better at knowing kind of this is definitely not real. I'm not as sensitive to it as they are. And so there's a lot to learn from them about it.
Just to finish off, tell us like, from Common Sense and the big picture, kind of what are you looking forward to? What are you investigating next? What are you interested in as your next exploration around education and kids?
Yvette Renteria: Yeah, I mean, we often talk about protecting and preparing kids and that's really what it's about for us. I think, you know, tech companies are moving fast, and we need to keep them accountable. And that's really something we're very much committed to. And we do that, again, through our advocacy angle, these idea of addictive designs, like even just a small feature that these companies can change to limit the doom scrolling. And like a small feature that will ensure, you know, littles are not being exposed to dangerous visuals.
And I don't, and I say this both as a Common Sense team member, but also as an individual, I don't believe these companies are bad. I just think sometimes it's overlooked as innovation builds, right? Like there's these concerns that I think sometimes, you know, and I think working with them, but also like keeping them accountable is working with them too. So that's one thing that I think is really important.
I have 10-year-old twins myself, so I'm seeing them enter this phase. And I think one of the other pieces is like, how are we assuring that kids are still using their brains and not finding the easy way out? And that I think is going to be something that we need to think through a little bit more of like, how are we ensuring that kids are not just simply offline, but like, what is really keeping us cognitively healthy? And so I say that to say we've been working with some physicians, you know, we work with like, we have partners at American Association of Pediatrics, you know, really thinking about the medical.
So you're seeing a lot of these different industries merging together and either working together closely or maybe not, but you know, the need to do that because again, two years ago, we were just simply saying digital citizenship, and now we're saying digital literacy and well-being. And so we're seeing it really kind of enter all aspects of a kid's life. And so for us, our working is like going through working with pediatricians, keeping tech companies accountable, keeping parents informed.
And recognizing that even as adults, we need bite size. Like the world is going so fast. How can we get information quickly in a short amount of time? And there is no way you could keep up with all the trends and the latest app and the latest challenge. But we are the ones like, ready to do it and try to get it in front of families and educators as quickly as possible.
Morva McDonald: Yeah, we appreciate your work. I mean, I just think you offer such, first of all, richness of the data that you're collecting and that you've paid attention to for so long is so helpful as schools and as leaders in schools try to manage and think forward, right, about how to respond at a time that's so quickly transforming and changing is really central and greatly appreciated.
And you're continuing thinking, as we are all trying to figure out, how do we work with parents? How do we collaborate with families? How do we collaborate with kids? How do we come together as communities, whether those are small communities or large communities, to ensure the safety and kind of the vibrancy, right, of our children's lives and thinking moving forward.
So with great appreciation, I just want to thank you for being here with us today on New View EDU, and we look forward to what's coming next at Common Sense Media. Thank you.
Yvette Renteria: Thank you, Morva, I really appreciate it.