- wöchentlichErscheinungsrhythmus
- 12 mintypische Länge
- vor 4 Tagenletzte Folge
What if you could anonymously ask one of the world’s leading online safety experts anything — and actually get a straight answer?
That’s exactly what Dear Teen is.
Every week, social worker and pedagogist Allison Ochs sits down with a real teen for an unscripted, honest conversation about life online. A pedagogist is more than an educator — it is a professional trained in child development, behaviour, and the social and emotional forces that shape how young people grow. Combined with her background as a social worker, Allison brings a rare and powerful perspective to one of the most urgent issues of our time: helping young people stay safe, think critically, and own their digital lives.
Allison is the founder of Edit Change Management and a published author whose work has influenced online safety conversations around the world. For over a decade, she has travelled the world visiting schools, listening to what teens are actually experiencing online — not the sanitised version, the real one. She knows what is being shared in group chats. She knows what happens after the screenshot. She knows what teens are carrying, quietly, because they do not know who to ask.
Dear Teen gives them someone to ask.
In each episode, a real teen poses one of today’s most pressing questions around online safety. Allison answers with expertise, honesty, and zero condescension — because teens do not need to be protected from the truth. They need access to it.
What happens to your data when you delete an app? How do you handle someone who won’t stop messaging you? Where is the line between a joke and harassment — and who decides? These are not hypothetical questions. They are the conversations happening right now, in bedrooms and bathrooms and school corridors, without enough good information to navigate them.
Dear Teen changes that. Because you are old enough to be online. You are old enough to know how it really works.
Real questions. My real answers. Dear Teen — every week, for the teens who deserve to know.
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“We Didn’t Have a Name for It”: A Teen on the Manosphere
A teen asks about the impact of the manosphere, and my guest today, a young woman, gives an honest answer: she and her friends lived it for years before they even had a name for it. We talk about the Louis Theroux documentary, why it shocke
Is It Bad That I Spend Four to Five Hours a Night Writing Fan Fiction?
A teen quit TikTok and Instagram completely. Now they spend hours every night writing fan fiction with AI. Is that a win or a warning sign? In this episode, I sit down with a teen to work through a question that’s harder than it looks. Writ
My School Wants Me to Use AI for Homework. Do I Have a Choice?
A teen wrote in saying their school is pushing AI for homework, and they don’t want to use it. Do they have a choice? I sit down with a teen who says yes, and she has a lot to say. She calls AI a “yes machine” that just agrees with whatever
Why do people want to escape in the first place?
A teen asked: why do people want to escape in the first place? This week I'm joined by a teen guest to talk it through honestly. We get into doom scrolling on a Tuesday night when the homework is piling up and the group chat is looming, why
Why Does Losing a Best Friend Hurt as Much as a Breakup?
A teen asked why losing a best friend can hurt as much as a breakup, and Allison put the question to another teen who heard it just minutes before we hit record. No script, just an honest conversation. They talk about why a best friend hold
Is It Bad to Practice Flirting Online?
Is it bad to practice flirting online? A listener sent in the question, so Allison asked a teen who's been there. They talk honestly about how it usually starts as a joke with friends, what people actually end up seeing on random chat sites
Here's How to Actually Stop Gaming, From a Former Gamer
"At the end of the day, no one cares." A teen who used to game heavily sits down with Allison to answer the question everyone asks, but nobody actually explains: how do you stop? Not "just quit," the real stuff: the fear of being yourself o
Why Do I Feel Ugly After Scrolling?
Why do I feel ugly after scrolling? A teen brought this question straight to Allison, and this episode goes there honestly: the algorithm content telling you what's "acceptable," the influencers who spend hours getting ready for a 30-second
Can AI be my therapist?
Some teens tell me their most honest conversations are with a bot, and as a social worker, I certainly have an opinion or two, but instead of lecturing you, I asked a teen what she thought. She has done this; she understands the whys and ma
