Entertainment
Four actions to reduce social media risks for your child
You’ve heard the outrage, you’ve read the reports, and you’ve seen the headlines: social media may be harming your child. What now? You gave your child a phone years ago and nothing short of the jaws of life could extract that thing from your kid’s grip now. You’d like to keep your child safe, but it’s a tug of war between you and an industry that has thousands of brilliant minds, and has invested billions of dollars, just to keep your child online as long as possible. You feel hopeless, guilty, exhausted, and maybe even angry.
I get it. I have done research on technology and adolescent mental health for 25 years, delivered hundreds of presentations of our findings to parents, schools, state legislative offices, and even to the Senate and at the White House. In fact, I am writing this piece on a flight back from Switzerland, where I presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos among dozens of companies unveiling even more sophisticated versions of AI-driven platforms that are designed to occupy our children’s attention for even more hours per day.
I am well aware of the potential benefits and harms of social media. But I am also a parent of two teenagers. I talk about this research all day, and then I spend each evening engaged in that same tug of war. It is almost impossible to raise a child today when tech titans have as much influence as parents in guiding our kids’ behavior.
But they haven’t won yet. You are still your child’s parent, and you still have tremendous power.
Here are four relatively easy things you can do today to help guard your children from the most dangerous risks on social media. Note – it’s best if you can do each of these thingsalong with some friends; we have added power when we work together as parents to create a united front, so our children don’t feel like they are the only ones with different rules for using tech.
Create tech-free zones in your child’s life
Your child will never admit this to you, but our research shows: Kids actually want limits on their device, but they want to be able to blame their parents or schools for “having to log off now.” Do them a favor and help them get some tech-free time. Research shows that about 50% of kids report at least one symptom of clinical dependency on social media (i.e., they can’t stop even when they want to), and in our work with college-aged students, about the same percent tell us that they wish their parents had not given in to them when they asked (begged?) for a phone at age 12.
You can do this in several ways:
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• Use parental controls to set up “downtime” or “sleep time” on your child’s device for periods throughout the day. “Sleep” mode will often even post a label so your child’s friends will understand why they are not writing back. You can shut down devices during the day, too. When your child has friends over, tell their parents not to bring the devices along – make it a tech-free playdate. Same for sleepovers, and ask instructors or coaches for extracurricular activities to apply the same rule.
• Adolescence is the second most important period in our lives for brain development behind the first year of life; eight to nine hours of sleep a night is absolutely mandatory. Make a house rule that all devices are shut off and put away at 10 p.m. on a school night (yours, too!). Remember when it was rude to call someone after 10 p.m.? Time for us to set that norm again. I know this can be hard to enforce, but scientific studies show that social media use is the number one reason for teens’ delayed sleep start and disrupted sleep, both of which have significant implications for how large your child’s brain grows in adolescence, and how well it functions. Tech titans may be able to get our kids to spend more time online than we would like, but we should absolutely refuse to let them affect how large our children’s brain will grow.
• Tell your school district that you want phones out of the classroom for instructional time (go to joinmama.org for resources).
Visit the app store with them
When I speak to middle and high school students, I conduct a simple exercise. Open the app store. Type in the name of your favorite social media platform. Now scroll down. Keep scrolling. There it is: the “Privacy” section. There’s a list of all the data the companies are collecting from your device once you download the app. This is the moment that the kids’ jaws drop, and their hands raise dramatically. “Wait, my internet searches are being sent to the company? My location? My contact list? My payment method?!” Yep. “Hold on, is this only when I am using the app?” Nope – it is everything you do from the moment you download the app and accept its terms. “What if my profile is set to ‘private’?” Doesn’t matter – that only affects what other users see. The company gets all your data no matter what. “Hey, if they are selling my data, do I get a cut of the profits?” Oh, bless your heart, no, you do not. Try this exercise at home. Create the space for an educated child to become a wise decision-maker for themselves.
Talk, talk, talk
Our research shows: Your kids will be exposed to content that teaches them how to engage in disordered eating behavior, how to cut themselves and hide it from their parents.They will see live suicide attempts and drug use among teens, they will see hateful and discriminatory posts against others based on their race, religion, or identity. They will be encouraged to “like” or “repost” this content, and for many, this content will make them more likely to engage in the same behavior themselves. Don’t wait for your child to volunteer that they saw this content. Talk to them about it, assuming that they have already seen or will soon see it. “Why do you think people posted that content? What would you do if you saw someone from your school posting that content? Why do you think some people “like” that content? Have you ever thought about doing some of the things you saw in those posts?”
Look at yourself
The world has been discussing the effects of tech on youth. But here’s a hard truth that folks don’t want to say out loud: It’s not just youth. Do you ever spend more time on your device than you would like? Ever pick up your phone to check a quick message only to scroll for way longer than you expected? Ever get excited about how many likes your post got? Your child is watching you. Research on “technoference” even shows that toddlers are jealous that you may spend more time looking at your phone than at them. Here’s a tough pill to swallow: We are complicit every time we show our kids that notifications must be answered immediately, that posts with many “likes” are to be celebrated, that people’s opinions matter just because they have many followers, or that scrolling on our phone is more exciting to us than watching our children play on the field.
The fact is – we are part of this, too, so let’s all be part of the solution together. Have a tech-free dinner with the family while leaving all devices in the other room. Maybe a tech-free hike, or device-less stop for frozen yogurt as a group. And here’s the important part: Talk about how hard this is for you, too. Discuss with your child how you cope with missing your phone. Discuss how it’s natural to worry that we may be missing out on a juicy new development online. Then discuss why your family values some tech-free time to make genuine human connections. Talk with your kids about how you develop emotional intimacy with friends so they can learn that there are relationships to be had that make us less lonely, as compared to the incessant scrolling of “friends’” profiles or the collection of followers that seems to increase loneliness. As hard as it is to acknowledge that we have been hooked, too, we must practice what we preach.
“I’m exhausted.”
Maybe you are far too busy to follow the tips suggested here. That’s fair. How many of us actually have time for deep conversations with our teenagers these days? And let’s be honest, the longer the kids are on screen, the easier it is for us to find time to do what we need to feed them fed, keep them in clean clothes, and give ourselves an occasional, needed break. That’s OK. Don’t beat yourself up for just making it through the day. Maybe instead of following all of the steps here, just try one. Maybe just once. Or maybe just start a conversation with another parent and compare notes on how they are managing this. Even the smallest steps forward can help change begin. I’m sad to say, although parents have the least time and energy to fix this issue, it may be up to us to do so.
You are not alone. We can make this change if we decide to do it together. Let’s not blame our kids, or each other, when we fail to resist the urge to look at our phones. Let’s support, commiserate, and share tips on what we have found that can help. And let’s use the most powerful tool we have – our collective power as parents. It was parents who made designated drivers “a thing.” We fought back against companies trying to make tobacco look cool to kids. We pushed back against those making a profit by putting sugary snacks and drinks in our kids’ schools. And we can do this! Demand that parental controls are easier to set. Select products that prioritize child safety. Abandon companies that advertise on platforms with the weakest protections for youth, and support nonprofit groups that advance a tech-healthy youth agenda. We are the market that tech companies need to survive, and your child has the data they want to make a profit. We may feel helpless in the struggle to keep our kids safe, but there may be some small things we can do today and some big things we can do together to save a generation from risk.
Mitch Prinstein, PhD is the chief of psychology for the American Psychological Association.
Entertainment
Mortal Kombat II review: The bar is in hell for video game movies, huh?
How many times do we have to go through this?
Yes, Mortal Kombat has been a massively popular video game franchise since its spawning in 1992. Yes, its over-the-top kills and thrillingly scornful catchphrases make the fighting games incredibly fun. But despite several attempts including 1995’s Mortal Kombat, 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, and the 2021 reboot, also titled Mortal Kombat, not a single good live-action movie has been made from this IP.
Yet here we are again with another ugly, nonsensical mess, this time called Mortal Kombat II.
Mortal Kombat, the last film in this much-flubbed franchise, centered on Cole Young (Lewis Tan), a descendant of Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim), who’s a fish out of water in the titular fighting tournament world. This time, he’s relegated to a tertiary character, so the sequel can pivot to a new fish out of water, Johnny Cage (Karl Urban), a washed-up ’90s action star who’d rather crush a beer than a spine. However, when a malevolent conqueror named Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) threatens Earthrealm, it’s up to Cage and a coterie of super-powered fighters to win a Mortal Kombat tournament to save their world.
Wisely, Warner Bros. led with Cage in their early promos, releasing teasers that showed a cheeky self-awareness of the Western martial arts movie while suggesting Mortal Kombat II would be funnier than its predecessor. Frustratingly, this is another example of good trailer, bad movie. And a big part of why is that Cage feels like he’s been wedged in, rather than centered on, for a new perspective.
Mortal Kombat II is a befuddling eyesore with sub-zero emotional depth.
Adeline Rudolph as Kitana.
Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
Mortal Kombat (2021) director Simon McQuoid is back with muddy CGI settings, rubbery CGI fighters, and much of his movie’s cast reprising their roles. Along with Tan and Taslim, Jessica McNamee is back as Sonya Blade, Josh Lawson as Kano, Mehcad Brooks as Jax, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Tadanobu Asano as Raiden, and Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hasashi / Scorpion.
Joining the fighter line-up opposite Cage are fan-wielding Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), staff-armed Jade (Tati Gabrielle), the many-fanged Baraka (CJ Bloomfield), and Ford as brutish conqueror Shao Kahn.
Now, you might think that’s too many characters to create meaningful story arcs over the course of a 116-minute runtime. And you’d be right!
Sure, screenwriter Jeremy Slater could have narrowed the focus to Cage’s experience to better create a moving narrative, while still folding in the requisite fighting, brawlers, and game allusions. But hey, why not split the story focus between Cage, whose gruff has-been attitude pitches Mortal Kombat II toward a promising Galaxy Quest vibe, and Kitana, whose rebellious warrior princess thread is reminiscent of Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Gamora as she battled Thanos and her “sister” Nebula. But here, Thanos is Shao Kahn, who murders Kitana’s dad in the film’s glacially paced opening sequence. And Nebula is Jade, Kitana’s bestie/guard since she became Shao Kahn’s prisoner as a girl. (If you want more backstory, fret not, there’s plenty.)
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Tati Gabrielle as Jade.
Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
Cage won’t even show up for the first 14 minutes of Mortal Kombat II. In that time, the sequel plunges into the same grim and self-serious atmosphere that made McQuoid’s first Mortal Kombat a bore. Sure, the fight scenes are really violent and bloody, befitting the film’s R-rating. But the fights feel disconnected from the storytelling. Worse yet, these battles are shot with very little visual logic, meaning some big blows just don’t hit.
And yep, there sure are recreations of memorable characters, their costumes, weapons, and catchphrases. But the major important distinction between this rebooted movie franchise and the games is, the games were fun.
The most fun Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II can offer is Kano, the only character who resolutely refuses to take things seriously.
Karl Urban shines, but Josh Lawson is Mortal Kombat II‘s MVP.
Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion, and Josh Lawson as Kano.
Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
As Cage, Urban brings with him an American arrogance that shakes up the seriousness of the Earthrealm battlers. He’s snarky where they’re stern, creating a feisty dynamic that borders on amusing. But as Cage’s clichéd plot line demands he become a selfless, brave hero, he becomes more grave and less giggle-inducing. Thank the gods for Lawson’s Kano.
This crusty criminal and unrepentant asshole died in the last movie, but like other MK fighters, he’s resurrected for this sequel. Thankfully, rather than being brought back as another humorless revenant, Kano is as chaotically insulting as ever, slinging barbs with reckless abandon. When he mocks necromancer Quan Chi (Damon Herriman) for his “eyeliner,” I howled with laughter. And for a brief moment I thought that between Cage and Kano, this movie might actually begin to get fun!
Alas, my hopes were squashed like a skull under a warhammer. Kano and Cage get to be comic relief, while Kitana broods and a new quest kicks off to heist a magical gem from Shao Kahn, which he effectively uses as an immortality cheat code. Again, life-or-death battles and a heist into the heart of a tyrant’s castle? This should be exciting and entertaining!
Inexplicably, McQuoid bleeds any tension from these sequences with a mangled visual language that makes fights hard to follow and the quest feel like an afterthought. Suspense cannot build because in every other scene, Slater’s script delivers another exposition drop to explain the tournament, the realms, the revenants — on and on! Video games are a visual medium. Movies are a visual medium. Yet much of this movie feels like I got locked into a tedious podcast.
In the end, Mortal Kombat II feels like the wretched compromise of two movie pitches. One is a sequel that closely follows the saga and dolesome tone of the last movie. The other is an action-comedy in the vein of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Whether it’s Kano reading other fighters to filth, or a sequence where Cage is chased around a village by a rampaging Baraka, there are moments where Mortal Kombat II flirts with not taking this IP deadly seriously. But then McQuoid pivots back to a tone that’s less Shogun and more Iron Fist. And as sloppy and artless as this adaptation is, it probably won’t matter.
Gamers need to demand more of video game movies.
CJ Bloomfield as Baraka.
Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
It’s long been a cliché that video game movies are traditionally bad. I was recently disappointed by the Until Dawn movie and moved to consider my own mortality over the vacuousness of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. And yet, studios keep plugging along with these movies “for the fans.”
Don’t be fooled. That’s a cynical sales pitch that assumes gamers love the source IP so much that studios don’t need to bring skilled filmmakers or spend the money on top-notch fight choreography, stunts, or visual effects. They believe the fans will come regardless of what they actually put on screen. And maybe they’re right! After all, critics warned that The Super Mario Galaxy Movie was a soulless sequel with more allusions than entertainment. But it’s nearing a billion dollars for worldwide box office. So, why should studios change strategy?
Warner Bros hired a commercial director to make his feature directorial film debut with Mortal Kombat, and now he’s back with a muddled vision that’s an ugly and lifeless slog. But if fans go to the theater or stream this exhaustively on HBO Max, like they presumably did its predecessor, then the bar is in hell, and it won’t be raised.
At least we have more Last of Us to look forward to, right?
Mortal Kombat II opens in theaters on May 8.
Entertainment
This robotic pool vacuum is basically a Roomba that can swim, and it’s $449 off today
SAVE 35%: As of May 6, you can get the Beatbot AquaSense 2 for $849 at Amazon, down from $1,298. That’s a 35% discount or $449 savings.
$849
at Amazon
$1,298
Save $449
I don’t have a pool (well, not a personal one, anyway; I live in an apartment complex), but I do have a robot vacuum, and I know the joy of watching a little machine clean my floors while I do other things. If you apply that same logic to pool maintenance (which I imagine is a lot more annoying than keeping your floors clean), then investing in a robo pool cleaner makes a lot of sense.
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And, right now, you can get one of Amazon’s top-rated models for a fraction of the price. As of May 6, you can get the Beatbot AquaSense 2 for $849 at Amazon, down from $1,298. That’s a 35% discount or $449 savings. It’s also the lowest price we’ve seen this model go for. The only problem? Amazon marked this as a “limited-time deal,” and the countdown clock shows it ends in about 16 hours.
This thing works just like an indoor robot vacuum; it maps out its cleaning path and then uses an onboard 4-core CPU and 16 sensors to navigate using an S-path for the pool floor and an N-path to scrub the walls and waterline. It also has a “Double-Pass Scrubbing” feature for the waterline, so it’ll get the grimiest spots twice per pass. Bonus: When it’s done cleaning (or when the battery runs low), it automatically parks itself at the surface of the water so you don’t have to go diving to retrieve it.
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Grandma Anne’s Secret Jell-O
I love making food that people appreciate — the kind of meal that makes the whole table go quiet at the first bite. But you know what I kind of love more? Making food that makes the whole table shriek like kids chasing the ice-cream truck.
So, when I happened upon a “secret Jell-O” recipe in chef Hillary Sterling’s new cookbook, Ammazza! — titled for the Roman slang term, which roughly translates to “wowee!” — I knew I had to share.
“This was the defining treat of my childhood,” explains Hillary. Growing up, her Grandma Anne always kept a bowl of Jell-O in the fridge. “She added halved grapes, and they’d hover in the middle while it ‘jellified.’ It tasted so cool, refreshing, and delicious.” As adults, Hillary and her sister tried to replicate it, but never managed to get the taste just right. That’s when their grandpa clued them in to Grandma Anne’s secret ingredient: sweet liqueur. “Turns out, our favorite childhood dessert was one part Grandma, one part frat party.”
Hillary’s own adaptation is a little more cocktail-party than frat, but just as festive: a ruby-red confection, studded with plums and served in a champagne coupe. Plus, it’s incredibly simple, with less than 10 minutes of active cooking time. And while I’ll give Grandma Anne the benefit of the doubt, and say she probably wasn’t trying to inebriate her grandchildren, this recipe has almost a shot’s worth of brandy per serving (wowee, indeed!). So, let’s maybe keep it at the grown-ups table.
Grandma Anne’s Secret Jell-O
from Ammazza! by Hillary Sterling
Serves 4
1/2 cup (115 g) prunes*
3/4 cup (180 ml) brandy
1 85-gram package cherry gelatin
*It’s true, prunes are dried plums. Here, they’re essentially rehydrated in the cooking process.
In a small pot, combine the prunes and 1/2 cup (120 ml) of the brandy. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat low, and cook until the prunes absorb all the liquid (about 5 minutes). Set aside. In a separate small saucepan, bring 1 cup (240 ml) of water to a boil. Place the gelatin in a heatproof bowl, then pour the hot water over it, whisking until fully dissolved (about 2 minutes). Stir in the remaining 1/4 cup (60 ml) of brandy and 1 cup (240 ml) of cold water.
Divide half of the gelatin mixture evenly among four glasses, filling them about halfway. (“This is the time to break out your heirloom wine glasses or champagne coupes,” says Hillary. “Style and presentation meant everything to my grandmother.”) Arrange the glasses on a small sheet pan for stability. Refrigerate, uncovered, until just set (about 1 hour).
Finally, divide the steeped prunes evenly among the glasses, gently placing them on top of the set layer. Top each glass with the remaining gelatin — the fruit will “float” as it sets. Cover and refrigerate until firm but still jiggly (about 1 hour more). Serve, and enjoy!
Thank you so much, Hillary! And congratulations on your beautiful cookbook.
P.S. More fun party recipes, including a chaotic pavlova and a pasta cake.
(Photos by Kelly Puleio. Excerpted with permission from Ammazza!, on sale now from Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Copyright © 2026 by Hillary Sterling)
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Mortal Kombat II review: The bar is in hell for video game movies, huh?
