About Emily
About Emily
As The Screentime Consultant, Emily is at the vanguard of the fight for our children against the digitization, commodification, and gamification of childhood.
As an author, public speaker, consultant, and associate professor of public policy, Emily is deeply engaged in addressing the challenges we face in today’s highly digitized world. Emily’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, The Today Show (twice), the BBC, Good Morning, America, and more.
With humor and compassion, Emily brings parents, teachers and administrators together. She is a mediator, a persuader, and a listener, bringing bespoke programs to a wide range of constituents to discover pedagogically-effective approaches to parenting, teaching, and learning. Emily’s charisma and professionalism translates to any setting, from auditoriums to conference rooms to classrooms. She is a mother of two teens and a former middle school teacher.
A globally-recognized public speaker, Emily motivates and inspires communities to become tech-intentional. As a leading expert on issues related to EdTech use and safety, she collaborates with schools around the world.
Emily’s best-selling book, The Screentime Solution: A Judgment-Free Guide to Becoming a Tech-Intentional Family, was published in January 2024 by Greenleaf Book Group.
As The Screentime Consultant, Emily is at the vanguard of the fight for our children against the digitization, commodification, and gamification of childhood.
As an author, public speaker, consultant, and associate professor of public policy, Emily is deeply engaged in addressing the challenges we face in today’s highly digitized world. Emily’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, The Today Show (twice), the BBC, Good Morning, America, and more.
With humor and compassion, Emily brings parents, teachers and administrators together. She is a mediator, a persuader, and a listener, bringing bespoke programs to a wide range of constituents to discover pedagogically-effective approaches to parenting, teaching, and learning. Emily’s charisma and professionalism translates to any setting, from auditoriums to conference rooms to classrooms. She is a mother of two teens and a former middle school teacher.
A globally-recognized public speaker, Emily motivates and inspires communities to become tech-intentional. As a leading expert on issues related to EdTech use and safety, she collaborates with schools around the world.
Emily’s best-selling book, The Screentime Solution: A Judgment-Free Guide to Becoming a Tech-Intentional Family, was published in January 2024 by Greenleaf Book Group.
Emily Cherkin, MEd., The Screentime Consultant, empowers parents to understand and balance family screentime by inspiring a movement around becoming tech-intentional.
As a mother of two (12 & 15) and former teacher, she is intimately familiar with the daunting challenges facing families in today’s highly digitized world.
Emily’s book, The Screentime Solution: A Judgment-Free Guide to Becoming a Tech-Intentional Family, will be published in January 2024 by Greenleaf Book Group.
The Screentime Problem
The Screentime Problem
There is growing research about the impact of technology on children, learning, mental health, relationships, families, and more. I believe strongly in using evidence-based research and data to inform my work. Increasingly, screen use, especially for children, is not only correlated with– but causational– to later health and educational outcomes.
“Screentime” challenges existed before the global pandemic started in 2020. But the experience of lockdown, remote work and learning, increased isolation, and increased screentime, especially for children, added fuel to the fire.
Here are just a few statistics to illustrate the current situation:
What Emily Believes
What Emily Believes
I am not anti-technology; I am tech-intentional™. Technology can provide value. But things get complicated when it comes to children whose brains are developing and vulnerable.
I believe:
Children learn how to use technology by watching the adults around them. We model their future behavior. When we know better, we do better. That is a powerful example to set.
Real-world connection to our children is the key to their future success.
Not all screentime is the same.
Nuance is key. What works for one family may not work for another.
Learning happens in the context of relationships.
Earned knowledge isn’t the same thing as passively received information.
Learning happens in moments of struggle and creates resilience and builds memory. Technology robs children of opportunities to persevere and recall knowledge.
Children learn best through hands-on tactile experiences in the context of human relationships.
We are fighting for our children’s future.
A Judgment-Free Guide to Becoming a Tech-Intentional Family
A Judgment-Free Guide to Becoming a Tech-Intentional Family
A Judgment-Free Guide to Becoming a Tech-Intentional Family
Author Emily Cherkin―aka The Screentime Consultant―has created a compelling guide for parents struggling with screentime at home. She combines research, humor, and experience as a parent and teacher to provide guidance for building a tech-intentional family.
Emily's Advocacy
Emily's Advocacy
Emily jokes that her memoir will be called “The Accidental Activist” because she didn’t plan to fight against the EdTech business model her life’s mission. But after decades of watching technology companies steamroll educators and administrators with untested, ineffective, and harmful products, Emily realized the industry’s claim to make schools more “efficient” or students more “standardized” revealed a lack of knowing children, a misunderstanding of learning, and a disregard for safety.
As a result of these concerns, Emily chose to do something. Emily has filed an appeal against her school district, attempted to recall her school board, and sued one of the largest EdTech companies on the planet. Emily also cofounded The Student Data Privacy Project and has been an active member of Fairplay’s Screens in Schools Action Network since 2018.
Why work with Emily?
The Screentime Consultant helps communities become Tech-Intentional. Emily empowers families and schools to prioritize relationships, skills, and safety with her tech-intentional approach.
Integrity
Integrity means doing the right thing even when no one else is watching. This is why Emily doesn’t endorse or hold affiliate relationships with any tech-based product, service, or company. We respect the work you’ve already done and support your leadership when you make courageous changes.
Curiosity
Curiosity means starting from a place of non-judgmental questioning. It means assuming best intentions, a willingness to learn more, and a desire to make change with new information. Emily replaces judgment with curiosity in the work she does with families, schools, and communities. We start where you are.
Courage
Courage is being afraid and choosing to act in spite of the fear. Emily knows that change doesn’t come from sitting and watching. We have to not only talk our talk, but walk our walk. Emily works with people from all over the world, because at the end of the day, this is about protecting children and childhood, not promoting a specific agenda.
Why work with Emily?
The Screentime Consultant helps communities become Tech-Intentional. Emily empowers families and schools to prioritize relationships, skills, and safety with her tech-intentional approach.
Integrity
Integrity means doing the right thing even when no one else is watching. This is why Emily doesn’t endorse or hold affiliate relationships with any tech-based product, service, or company. We respect the work you’ve already done and support your leadership when you make courageous changes.
Curiosity
Curiosity means starting from a place of non-judgmental questioning. It means assuming best intentions, a willingness to learn more, and a desire to make change with new information. Emily replaces judgment with curiosity in the work she does with families, schools, and communities. We start where you are.
Courage
Courage is being afraid and choosing to act in spite of the fear. Emily knows that change doesn’t come from sitting and watching. We have to not only talk our talk, but walk our walk. Emily works with people from all over the world, because at the end of the day, this is about protecting children and childhood, not promoting a specific agenda.
Why work with Emily?
The Screentime Consultant helps communities become Tech-Intentional. Emily empowers families and schools to prioritize relationships, skills, and safety with her tech-intentional approach.
Integrity
Integrity means doing the right thing even when no one else is watching. This is why Emily doesn’t endorse or hold affiliate relationships with any tech-based product, service, or company. We respect the work you’ve already done and support your leadership when you make courageous changes.
Curiosity
There is a lot of tech-funded "research" about the benefits of technology.
My recommendations are rooted in the science of childhood development from independent researchers.
Courage
Courage is being afraid and choosing to act in spite of the fear. Emily knows that change doesn’t come from sitting and watching. We have to not only talk our talk, but walk our walk. Emily works with people from all over the world, because at the end of the day, this is about protecting children and childhood, not promoting a specific agenda.
Are you interested in featuring Emily?
Emily Cherkin, MEd., The Screentime Consultant, empowers parents to understand and balance family screentime by inspiring a movement around becoming tech-intentional. As a mother of two (13 & 16) and former teacher, she is intimately familiar with the daunting challenges facing families in today’s highly digitized world.
Emily’s book, The Screentime Solution: A Judgment-Free Guide to Becoming a Tech-Intentional Family, was published in January 2024 by Greenleaf Book Group.
Are you interested in featuring Emily?
Emily Cherkin, MEd., The Screentime Consultant, empowers parents to understand and balance family screentime by inspiring a movement around becoming tech-intentional. As a mother of two (13 & 16) and former teacher, she is intimately familiar with the daunting challenges facing families in today’s highly digitized world.
Emily’s book, The Screentime Solution: A Judgment-Free Guide to Becoming a Tech-Intentional Family, was published in January 2024 by Greenleaf Book Group.
Are you interested in featuring Emily?
Emily Cherkin, MEd., The Screentime Consultant, empowers parents to understand and balance family screentime by inspiring a movement around becoming tech-intentional. As a mother of two (13 & 16) and former teacher, she is intimately familiar with the daunting challenges facing families in today’s highly digitized world.
Emily’s book, The Screentime Solution: A Judgment-Free Guide to Becoming a Tech-Intentional Family, was published in January 2024 by Greenleaf Book Group.
Articulating the importance of relationships combined with a clear understanding of research, Emily engaged our audience with her candor, humor, knowledge, and passion. She provided valuable strategies and clear concepts that can immediately improve a family's relationship with technology. She is approachable and ready to engage in whatever the moment requires, with great humanity, vast experience, and science-based research.
Jim McGuire
Assistant Head of School, Louisville Collegiate School
Emily gave a great presentation on parenting in the age of screentime. She was so engaging and provided a ton of useful science-backed data in an accessible way. Emily spoke about the realities of screentime without any judgement, which I really appreciated. We’ve even incorporated one of her concrete suggestions into our own family – explaining out loud to our kids what we are doing on our phone when we pick them up.
Jaime
Attendee at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington
Emily Cherkin’s presentations sparkle. She is empathetic, knowledgeable, engaging and practical!
Lisa Cordingley
Executive Director,
Helena Education Foundation
What stood out most was Emily’s focus on prevention, especially for parents of younger children. Her advice on building healthy habits early and setting clear boundaries around technology offered parents both clarity and confidence. We are so grateful for her expertise and highly recommend her to any school or organization looking to support families in addressing these critical issues.
Kelly Fast
Cascades Academy, Director of Academic and Experiential Programs
Emily Cherkin’s visit to Cascades Academy was an engaging and impactful experience for our community. Her presentation tackled the challenges of raising children in a digital world with humor, research, and practical strategies that resonated deeply with parents. She provided actionable tools to help families navigate screen use while fostering stronger connections at home.
Kelly Fast
Cascades Academy, Director of Academic and Experiential Programs
Emily Cherkin gave a talk to our High School and Middle School on 10/28/24. Her insight and advice on how to be more tech intentional with our children was so helpful. I know that everyone went away from the talk with helpful tips to work with our kids in this tech crazy world. Thank you Emily for your helping our caregivers out!!
Kristen Swift
Programs EVP, South Pasadena High School
Emily's training was both engaging and valuable for our team members! Emily provided information in a way that made sense and was backed by data. We truly walked away feeling as if we had more tools to use when working with our families each day.
Amanda Clugh
Director of Early Intervention, Ashtabula County Board of Developmental Disabilities
As a former teacher, Emily applies her knowledge of child development with current research to guide parents as they create their screentime values and boundaries. She understands the complicated role parents play and has great ideas on how to build connections with your child while having tricky conversations about technology.
Carl T.
Elementary Teacher
Emily's passion and energy has inspired my parenting class to reflect on their own screentime use and make changes that are in alignment with their values.
Patti S.
Mother
Emily's wisdom and passion empowers parents to look at the values without judgement and make screentime decisions that are in alignment with who they want their kids to become.
Chris R.
Father
“We could not have been happier with Emily and her presentation...It was similar to a TED talk: great visuals and current data, dynamic pacing, thought-provoking, and really funny...Emily is simply a dynamo. She has set a very high bar at our school for parent presentations.”
Barry Wright
Head of School at The Perkins School
“Emily Cherkin is an outstanding public speaker on the topic of screentime. Emily is engaging, relatable and realistic. She is an expert on the alarming statistics regarding screentime and our youth and she is equally knowledgeable on real life strategies to handle screentime challenges with children of all ages.”
Brenna McCown
Parent Map Events Manager
“The reason we feel compelled to listen to Emily is because she is so authentically herself. She is approachable, serious, and deeply caring. The ripple effect of her efforts will spread because people need to hear the truth.”
Slocumb L.
Father
“Emily is realistic, approachable, relatable, and, of course, knowledgeable. She is able to get people to listen to her and hear her important message. We need her voice.”
Rhonda M.
Mother
“Emily is a dynamic speaker, engaging and funny. While the information she presents about technology today is sobering, Emily provides reasonable solutions and relevant suggestions to help us navigate the tech-saturated world around us. As a parent of three children who all love technology, I appreciated Emily’s clear vision and advice on how to be more tech-intentional.”
Michelle C.
Mother of Three
Articulating the importance of relationships combined with a clear understanding of research, Emily engaged our audience with her candor, humor, knowledge, and passion. She provided valuable strategies and clear concepts that can immediately improve a family's relationship with technology. She is approachable and ready to engage in whatever the moment requires, with great humanity, vast experience, and science-based research.
Jim McGuire
Assistant Head of School, Louisville Collegiate School
Emily gave a great presentation on parenting in the age of screentime. She was so engaging and provided a ton of useful science-backed data in an accessible way. Emily spoke about the realities of screentime without any judgement, which I really appreciated. We’ve even incorporated one of her concrete suggestions into our own family – explaining out loud to our kids what we are doing on our phone when we pick them up.
Jaime
Attendee at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington
Emily Cherkin’s presentations sparkle. She is empathetic, knowledgeable, engaging and practical!
Lisa Cordingley
Executive Director,
Helena Education Foundation
What stood out most was Emily’s focus on prevention, especially for parents of younger children. Her advice on building healthy habits early and setting clear boundaries around technology offered parents both clarity and confidence. We are so grateful for her expertise and highly recommend her to any school or organization looking to support families in addressing these critical issues.
Kelly Fast
Cascades Academy, Director of Academic and Experiential Programs
Emily Cherkin’s visit to Cascades Academy was an engaging and impactful experience for our community. Her presentation tackled the challenges of raising children in a digital world with humor, research, and practical strategies that resonated deeply with parents. She provided actionable tools to help families navigate screen use while fostering stronger connections at home.
Kelly Fast
Cascades Academy, Director of Academic and Experiential Programs
Emily Cherkin gave a talk to our High School and Middle School on 10/28/24. Her insight and advice on how to be more tech intentional with our children was so helpful. I know that everyone went away from the talk with helpful tips to work with our kids in this tech crazy world. Thank you Emily for your helping our caregivers out!!
Kristen Swift
Programs EVP, South Pasadena High School
Emily's training was both engaging and valuable for our team members! Emily provided information in a way that made sense and was backed by data. We truly walked away feeling as if we had more tools to use when working with our families each day.
Amanda Clugh
Director of Early Intervention, Ashtabula County Board of Developmental Disabilities
As a former teacher, Emily applies her knowledge of child development with current research to guide parents as they create their screentime values and boundaries. She understands the complicated role parents play and has great ideas on how to build connections with your child while having tricky conversations about technology.
Carl T.
Elementary Teacher
Emily's passion and energy has inspired my parenting class to reflect on their own screentime use and make changes that are in alignment with their values.
Patti S.
Mother
Emily's wisdom and passion empowers parents to look at the values without judgement and make screentime decisions that are in alignment with who they want their kids to become.
Chris R.
Father
“We could not have been happier with Emily and her presentation...It was similar to a TED talk: great visuals and current data, dynamic pacing, thought-provoking, and really funny...Emily is simply a dynamo. She has set a very high bar at our school for parent presentations.”
Barry Wright
Head of School at The Perkins School
“Emily Cherkin is an outstanding public speaker on the topic of screentime. Emily is engaging, relatable and realistic. She is an expert on the alarming statistics regarding screentime and our youth and she is equally knowledgeable on real life strategies to handle screentime challenges with children of all ages.”
Brenna McCown
Parent Map Events Manager
“The reason we feel compelled to listen to Emily is because she is so authentically herself. She is approachable, serious, and deeply caring. The ripple effect of her efforts will spread because people need to hear the truth.”
Slocumb L.
Father
“Emily is realistic, approachable, relatable, and, of course, knowledgeable. She is able to get people to listen to her and hear her important message. We need her voice.”
Rhonda M.
Mother
“Emily is a dynamic speaker, engaging and funny. While the information she presents about technology today is sobering, Emily provides reasonable solutions and relevant suggestions to help us navigate the tech-saturated world around us. As a parent of three children who all love technology, I appreciated Emily’s clear vision and advice on how to be more tech-intentional.”
Michelle C.
Mother of Three
Are you ready to be Tech-Intentional™?
Click below to contact Emily and see if a Tech-intentional™ approach is right for you!
Are you ready to be Tech-Intentional™?
Click below to contact Emily and see if a Tech-intentional™ approach is right for you!
Are you ready to be Tech-Intentional™?
Click below to contact Emily and see if a Tech-intentional™ approach is right for you!