Like most parents, Carson Daly worries about what his children might be exposed to on the internet.
On TODAY Tuesday, Carson, alongside co-hosts Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Craig Melvin and Al Roker, mourned the loss of Dr. Laura Berman’s 16-year-old son, Sammy, who died of an accidental overdose after purchasing drugs on social media.
Berman and her husband, Samuel Chapman, told NBC News’ Kate Snow they wish they had known more about what Sammy was doing on Snapchat. The grieving parents didn’t even know the passcode on his phone.
“Talk with your kids,” Snow encouraged parents.
Carson, who is dad to Jackson, 11, Etta, 8, London, 6, and Goldie, 10 months, with wife Siri, ended the segment by sharing a smart strategy he uses when it comes to what his kids see online with his co-hosts.
“Everything my kids are playing, I actually download and play it,” he said. “My wife thinks I’m crazy, whether it’s Roblox or Among Us or all these popular games. Tik Tok, Snapchat, I want to see it as a parent with my own eyes so I see what they’re navigating through.”
Corporal Kenneth Hibbert Jr., an officer in the community policing unit of Prince George County Police Department in Maryland, suggests setting digital boundaries.
“Look at the history for what they’re looking into online,” Hibbert shared. “Look at their cell phone, too. You’ve got to stay on top of that to know what’s going on.”
It’s not the first time Carson has gotten candid about his approach to parenting.
After the unexpected death of his mother, Pattie Daly Caruso, the TODAY co-host told Hoda that unconditional parental love can be “scary.”
“My parents were overly proud,” Carson shared in 2019. “I sometimes try to love my kids, I think, less, almost on purpose, because I’m so scared of loving them too much. Because my parents, my mom especially, loved me so much, it was almost too much. And I know that now because when she died the hurt was a transference of the love, right? It hurt so much because I’m so bummed that that love isn’t there anymore, and that’s a byproduct of her love for me. And that’s the greatest gift you can give your kids.”
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