The Digital Childhood

About The Digital Childhood

Calm guidance for raising kids in a digital world.

Why this exists

A hard tech moment happened with my daughter, and I didn't have a place to go to help me figure out what to do. There was plenty to read. What was missing was the translation: what does this mean for my kid, what should I do, and what do I actually say?

I was a kid who was deep in tech back when it wasn't on anyone's radar yet, and now I'm raising two kids while phones, social media, algorithms and AI change faster than any of us can keep up. The Digital Childhood is what I wish my parents had when I was a kid, and what I wish I had now, so I created it. Things keep changing, and it helps to have each other and something real to lean on when a hard tech moment comes up with our kids.

What you'll find

There are real conversation scripts for the moments that catch you off guard, written as a back and forth so you know what to say when your kid pushes back. There are explainers on the apps, games and AI tools your kid uses, and each one has a demo you can tap to see how it actually works. There are family and friend group pacts, a kit for talking to your school, and offline ideas for the nights when the answer is no. And there's Leaf, the app's AI helper. It answers from my scripts and explainers and follows rules I set for it, so what you get back sounds like what I'd tell you.

Who I am

I'm Chelsea Redeker, and I founded The Digital Childhood. I came up with it, designed it and have led it from the first idea to the app you're using now. I built the brand from scratch and grew a community of parents around it.

After Cornell, I spent my career in HR, first at Capital One and then at the American Enterprise Institute, taking complicated things like benefits and company policies and making them easy for people to actually use.

It's the same work I do now, just with a different subject. I take the tech our kids are growing up with, figure out what parents actually need from it, and make it easier to handle.

These days I'm home full time with our son and our daughter. My husband and I live outside Washington, D.C.

None of this would exist without my nephew, Jack Pohlad, the technical developer and builder of The Digital Childhood app.

Our approach

You don't have to be anti-tech to be pro-childhood. Technology is part of growing up today, and we want kids to use it well, so the app explains the tech they're actually using, gives you the words for the hard moments, and leaves plenty of room for childhood to still feel like childhood.

Connect

Follow @thedigitalchildhood on Instagram, or open the app to start using the scripts and tools tonight.