Viral Parenting: A Guide to Setting Boundaries, Building Trust, and Raising Responsible Kids in an Online World

by Mindy McKnight

Mindy McKnight, YouTube's favorite mom, shares the tools parents need to keep kids safe in their online lives--and shows how to create stronger family relationships as they do.



A cross between Jen Hatmaker and Rosalind Wiseman, VIRAL PARENTING is a guide to raising responsible, safe, and communicative kids in the digital world. Mindy shares practical tools for having honest conversations with kids of all ages about privacy, bullying, respectfulness, and family time, while emphasizing the importance of trust and open communication. These strategies are timeless--whether applied to texting, snapping, Facebooking, kiking, or whatever social media platforms await us in the future, this book is ultimately about teaching children about personal responsibility and safety.



Mindy shares practical tools for creating family rules for kids of all ages about privacy, bullying, respectfulness, and family time, while emphasizing the importance of trust and open communication. Using family contracts, guided conversations, device checks, and respectful but firm oversight, the McKnights have raised a close knit family and navigated the complexity of being world-wide internet celebrities with grace. McKnight will show any parent of any child or teen how that's done--setting non-negotiable guidelines and offering a savvy perspective toward privacy that audience have been begging for.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction, Self Help, Audiobook

288 pages, Hardcover

First published April 2, 2019

Reviews

[Amy Brown (amylikestoreadalot) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm...good idea but not for me. It's written more for parents who are clueless about technology. Some good ideas in there, but the authors are also promoting their children, who are Youtubers. I ended up skimming it.

[Christina Ayyash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good content, some of the info was geared to a more unaware/ basic understanding of internet. It was a good source with lots of details & ideas.

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mindy McKnight, YouTube's favorite mom, shares the tools parents need to keep kids safe in their online lives--and shows how to create stronger family relationships as they do.
A cross between Jen Hatmaker and Rosalind Wiseman, VIRAL PARENTING is a guide to raising responsible, safe, and communicative kids in the digital world. Mindy shares practical tools for having honest conversations with kids of all ages about privacy, bullying, respectfulness, and family time, while emphasizing the importance of trust and open communication. These strategies are timeless--whether applied to texting, snapping, Facebooking, kiking, or whatever social media platforms await us in the future, this book is ultimately about teaching children about personal responsibility and safety.
Mindy shares practical tools for creating family rules for kids of all ages about privacy, bullying, respectfulness, and family time, while emphasizing the importance of trust and open communication. Using family contracts, guided conversations, device checks, and respectful but firm oversight, the McKnights have raised a close knit family and navigated the complexity of being world-wide internet celebrities with grace. McKnight will show any parent of any child or teen how that's done--setting non-negotiable guidelines and offering a savvy perspective toward privacy that audience have been begging for. (less)

[Sana Sherali · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read an early copy of this book. Viral Parenting is a guiding light for parents (or even older siblings) who are trying to navigate the online world and social media. I have nieces and nephews who are barely 10 and are ALREADY on the same social media platforms as me such as IG and Snapchat. Having a book like this has helped me and their parents create boundaries on how to and when to use social media. I absolutely love the contracts in the book and Mindy's personal family stories help shed light on how to adapt her digital parenting techniques to fit each family member. Definitely recommend this book for anyone who has younger siblings and or kids!

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Technology is why this book should have never been a book. It was published in 2019 and it already feels outdated and cheesy in 2023. “You must master the digital world before it masters you,” was where I had to call it quits. If you’re a parent and you aren’t using social media, pick up this book. If you use social media (oh look, here you are!) go read something more worth your time.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is full of ideas for rules and consequence based parenting. I bought it for insight into how to deal with computers, phones, social media...and the whole digital world with kids. It was invaluable for that but the book actually contains ideas for all kinds of parenting situations.

I've raised five kids and read this book to see if I could recommend it to my kids who are raising their own families now. My kids were born from 1987 to 1998. With the older three I didn't have to deal with the full onslaught of the social media craze but the younger two came into their teens with cell phones being all the rage. I am very computer literate but was not prepared for the impact of social media. I am not happy with what I feel was the impact of social media on my kids.

I love that this book was written by a major Youtube influencer family...and included insight from all family members. I found the McKnight's approach to extreme oversight of their kids digital world refreshingly empowering to parents. If I had read this book when I was in the thick of it I would have done things much differently...more like many of the recommendations in this book.

I highly recommend this book for parents currently in the thick of raising their families!

[Charissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I looked forward to reading this book because raising a child in a world so technologically different from that of my own childhood is mind-boggling at times. I was on the hunt for principles to guide me through this process, guidelines I could carry with me as the digital world continues to morph.

I definitely found some good tools--the chapters on rules and contracts for social media and cell phones, social media basics, and being honest and safe in a world of digital fakery provided me with important insights. What I wasn't expecting were the chapters on parenting and family life in general (not related to technology). Although those chapters were interesting, they weren't what I was searching for in this book. I think there are already plenty of well-researched parenting books on the market. I wanted something more focused from Viral Parenting.

All in all, this book is a helpful toolkit for where we're at with technology here and now, but it could have been much shorter and more tightly written.

[Anu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible and Must Read Rule book for all in this digital world.

The Book is divided into 3 parts:

Part – I LIFE THROUGH A SELFIE STICK: HOW TECHNOLOGY HAS TRANSFORMED PARENTING
Part – II FAMILY AND HOME LIFE
Part – III FRIENDSHIP AND COMMUNITY

Well-narrated and organised writing.
Informative, Relatable and Practical.
It is a Perfect Guide.
In this book, the author takes the readers on a journey from childhood days, transition from mere hobby of hair styling to YouTube videos, Parenting Rules, Routine & systems, Privacy Issues, pros and cons involved in digital world, social media platforms & Etiquette, Golden rules applicable in the digital world and how to protect kids safe and secure.
I loved the apt categorisation of Analog Vs Digital List.
Contribution and interaction from the family members in this book help us to explore and understand digital concepts in-depth.
Personal experiences and life instances give us learning on how to have a perfect mix of both analog and digital world and create a strong bond between parents and children in this modern world.

[Book Him Danno · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a mother of 4 kids under 12 years old I have to know everything that happens on the net to protect my children. Who knew when one of your children favorite sites one click and they are on a porn site or worse they download a virus.

After the first virus my child downloaded wanting to play a kids game I decided it was time to learn everything I could.
This book is perfect introduction for grandparents, adults, and kids of all ages to better understand what content they are view as well as staying away from area of the net that came hurt them.
The author gives amazing insight into helping understand the world our children are growing up in. Some might find her rules restricting but honestly as a parents her guidelines are perfect until everyone is able to better understand each other boundaries.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of Mindy McKnight Viral Parenting

[Jacqueline Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

As we navigate these uncharted waters of raising children with technology, I’ve started checking out books on the subject (which is ironic, given the fact I’m seeking advice on technology from a physical, paper-filled book!). I just finished this one. It really opened my eyes to the fact that as much as we want to hide children from technology and give them the childhood we had growing up, we have entered a new era, and the digital world is our children’s world. This book showed me how we, as adults, need to understand the digital world in order to effectively raise our kids in it and also to effectively show them how to navigate it. I really liked this book because it broke down a ton of social media platforms and described how they work, who uses them, some pitfalls, the good things about them, etc. Very helpful for someone like me! I liked how the author said that we are the chosen generation, the bridges, between the analog world and the digital one. Great book.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title was so promising, and Viral Parenting was what I was really hoping for in this book. Some tips on how to parent kids with specific “how to’s” and “what to look for” I was hoping for specific training on app management, not generalized explanations of what apps are, it was a very simple technology explanation and probably would be handy to someone who is clueless about phones. And there was really only one chapter on it. The rest was a bunch of general parenting advice which I guess is always good to hear different ideas, but I‘ve already read tons of those by psychologists and experts. I did like the phone and computer responsibility contracts. This book was worth it for those templates. Plus I rarely watch YouTube, I didn’t realize Mindy was a big YouTube star and that was her claim to fame and authority. Wish I had known before I started reading.

[Nicole Sampson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book if you have older kids and you're not sure how to navigate the internet or apps or the world online. It breaks things down very basically, so some parts might be a little more information than you need. There's also other parenting advice. The author gives examples of contracts that she signs with her children to make sure they use their devices, car, etc. the way she expects them to. To me it seemed like there was a lot in these contracts and it would be hard for kids to remember it all and hard for parents to be able to enforce all of it.

The author is an online influencer and so are some of her children, so at times what she wrote was unrelatable for me as an average person. I also didn't agree some of her parenting techniques.

[Sara Bronson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like this book offered some great tips for helping your kids become competent and safe technology users beyond "use parental controls." There are tips for how to have hard conversations with the kids, how to set up new technology access privileges with success, etc. The most important thing I retained from this is that while the t4echnology scares us as adults and we often have no interest in it, we need to be on the platforms and surfing the internet so that we can be informed. How can we inform our own kids or even create reasonable boundaries for them if we have no experience with their world?

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Even though our parenting styles are different in many ways I found it helpful and filled with good ideas. A lot of common sense but sometimes just the way it’s presented makes it click better in my head. I walked a way with a few new things in my parenting arsenal and a realization that I’m doing better on the digital front then I realized.

I listened to the audio version which was read by Mindy, her husband and a couple of their daughters. I’d love to have a hard copy though for referencing some of the family contracts they discuss.

[Angela Payne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had lots of great content. I found Part 1 and 2 a little more geared towards parents that would not be familiar with the digital age, so I skimmed through that information. However, I really enjoyed the other parts and the tips and encouragement from Mindy to keep first things first. The content wasn’t something foreign to me but served as a great reminder to be more intentional with regards to building family relationships in the digital age. Overall, this book was well put together and an enjoyable read.

[Amanda Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am totally re-reading this as my kids get older. Mindy McKnight gives such helpful advice for raising children in the digital age. I loved the contracts she created for her children to abide by in order to have privileges to have a phone, social media, own a computer, drive, etc. She also just gave fantastic general parenting advice! I loved the idea of having a family motto to live by. I found that many of my family/parenting values aligned with hers and her book sparked many conversations between my husband and I about how we want to raise our family.

[Lukas Lovas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth reading, and I don't regret the time spent.

I don't have kids yet, but I found the book provided quite a lot of useful info and ideas for how to raise a child in a technological world. I think I'll be taking inspiration from many techniques described here, and I definitely recommend reading this book to anyone interested in parenting in the modern world. I found that some parts written by the authors kids and husband added a lot of colour to the book, especially the kids viewpoints.

[alicebme · Rating 2 out of 5]

If your family is a screen family, and you need some contract templates, have a look. Screens are a big part of the author’s family, so what she’s saying is normal might not be for you. Her family also has a lot of structure built in, so her suggestions for managing screens and the Internet may be way outside of your wheelhouse.

[Nollie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good guide on finding the balance of teaching kids and enabling them to utilize social media and tech while still guiding and setting firm boundaries. Especially liked the phone, computer, and car use contacts they show. Gave great ideas for conversations i wouldn’t have thought of that need to be addressed.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would recommend this book. Good for parents trying to balance technology in their families, and for kids to see the many sides of technology. Lots for kids to consider about safety, time management, responsibility, etc.
The audiobook was easy to listen to.
My 12 year old read the hardback copy and loved it.

[Claris · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the first chapter, I skimmed the book rather than dive deep. I would recommend this book for parents unfamiliar with technology, as McKnight had prefaced in the beginning of the book. I’m a parent who is part of the “analog clock generation,” but I also keep up with social media and my kids’ tech world.

[Ms. No Name · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good book overall, I found some of the advice to be based on utopic scenarios because life as it happens varies greatly from home to home and each parenthood journey is different. I do agree mostly on the building trust and setting boundaries ideas and reflections as they have a solid based on respectful parenting. I think I will eventually read this book again.

[Amanda M (On The Middle Shelf) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good look into analog parents trying to raise digital kids. Mindy makes a lot of really good points. I thought some of her tangents got a little of topic but overall some good parenting perspective.

[Sarah Burke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of excellent advice about parenting in this digital age. I loved the comparison of analog versus digital items in the beginning and the parent/kid sample contracts for cell phones, driving and computers.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3
This was fine. Some of the guidelines and checklists for online behaviors will be useful, but some of the book felt like self-promotion (the author, husband, and children are all YouTubers). Lots of digressions from “online behavior,” which is fine, but then the title should be different.

[M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a good read.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of great ideas and information to help kids with screens and the Internet. I took notes!

[Cayenne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is truly the best parenting book—especially for teenagers—that I have ever read.

[Kristen Campbell · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few good pointers.

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much of the book I didn't find useful, but the computer and cell phone contracts are awesome to use as templates.