For 14 years, the National Institute on Media and the Family was at the forefront of advocacy and research on media and their effects on children and families. I founded the Institute in an effort to educate, inform, and equip parents to make positive choices about the media that their children are exposed to. We led the conversation and our efforts resulted in many video game industry reforms. Many of you downloaded and distributed our MediaWise guides and video game report cards.
Because of your commitment, we began searching for a place that our work could continue as soon as it was clear that the Great Recession was claiming another non-profit victim. We found that home at Search Institute, another Minneapolis-based nonprofit. Search has long been a leader in the positive youth development field, and is committed to helping parents raise healthy, caring, responsible kids. They realize the importance of a positive media diet as well. That’s why I’m convinced that the work will not only survive. It will thrive. I myself am proud to now be a Senior Advisor at Search.
All of our programs, products, and resources now reside within Search Institute. Both Say Yes to No and through-U are still available, and Switch is in the process of being revisited. The MediaWise guides have been collected and distilled into the Technology & Media section of ParentFurther.com, Search’s parenting website.
I encourage you to continue to support the work of the National Institute on Media and the Family by staying in touch with Search Institute. With technology changing at breakneck speed, it’s more important than ever to pay attention to and figure out ways that media and technology can benefit kids while avoiding the harm they can bring.
Search offers three newsletters with valuable information for parents and other caring adults. I encourage you to sign up for at least one of these newsletters to get updates on how Search is using the National Institute on Media and the Family resources and other things that are happening.
ParentFurther.com is another great resource for parents, and contains much of the information from our MediaWise guides. Watch for more to be posted in the future!
Dr. Dave Walsh