Google Technology & Safety Expert Alex Joseph on helping you make technology work for your family

During Mental Health Awareness Month, Google is addressing concerns about technology habits and children's mental health. There has been an increase in searches about screen time and online safety. Google has a team of experts and advisory committees working to develop tools and products to help children navigate the online world. One important tool is the Family Link app, which allows parents to set digital ground rules for their children. It includes features like setting screen time limits and controlling app usage. This app is especially useful during the summer when kids spend more time online. For more information, visit families.google or download the Family Link app. I want to get right to my guest who I literally just have a couple of minutes to talk to about a rather important segment of May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and it has to do with technology habits and helping to keep kids safe mentally during the summer months. Alex Joseph from Google is with us this morning. Hey Alex, good morning. How are you doing? I'm doing well, Bert. Thank you so much for having me. And thank you for making yourself available. I know we have just a very narrow window this morning, but our ABC News said that kids who are online more than three hours a day run a significant risk of developing some mental health issues, and now we're talking about kids who will probably spend maybe up to nine hours a day when we get to the summer months online. What are some steps that Google is taking to help keep our kids safe this summer? So you're absolutely right. People are talking about this, and there's a lot of concern, and we're actually seeing it in our searches as well. So there's a surge in queries about screen time for mental health. I mean, we've seen three times as many searches this year, but the question, how much screen time is too much, or how do I keep my kids safe online? So there's absolutely a conversation that's active, and it's happening. At Google, we have a dedicated team of developmental and clinical experts that are asking these same questions, and they're really guiding our work. And we also have advisory committees with outside experts that we consult, all to make sure that we're building the right tools and products to help, you know, children manage and kind of come of age online. So one of the most important things I'd like to highlight is this app that we have. It's a one-stop shop. It's called Family Link, and it lets you set digital ground rules to help guide children as they learn and explore online. So this is anything from setting a bedtime timer, setting limits to their screen time, prohibiting certain apps from being installed or used on their phone. It really is one place where a parent can really start that conversation with their child and really make sure that they're guiding them to a safe online experience. That is a must-have tool, I think, for any parent, Alex, going into the summer months when kids are going to be out on their own a lot more often, and being able to just manage their access to technology and the things that they're looking at, I think, is going to be a huge help for parents, not only here in Northwest Jersey, but really around our entire country. Is there a website where people can go to to maybe get some more information about these tools? Yes. So you can just go to families.google and see all the information we provide at Google, and then you can also download the Family Link app on your app store. All right. Very good. My guest has been Alex Joseph, Google safety and technology expert, and Alex, I greatly appreciate the new safety layers with the Google sign-in. Thank goodness I can still just simply enter my password and get to all my pages, but the layered security is certainly appreciated, and so is your time this morning. So thank you so much. Hey, thank you, Bert. Thank you so much for having me.