Gaming in Lockdown: Achieving Safety and Balance in Online Play

Dr. Rich is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, at Harvard Medical and practices Adolescent Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Rich is also the Founding Director of the first evidence-based medical program addressing physical, mental, and social health issues associated with digital technology, the Clinic for Interactive Media and Internet Disorders​ (CIMAID). As The Mediatrician®, Dr. Rich offers research-based, balanced, and practical answers to parents’, teachers’, and clinicians’ questions about children’s media use and the positive and negative implications for their health and development. Understanding the power of screens to engage, connect, and change us all, he is bringing together pediatricians and software engineers, educators and designers, psychologists, and screenwriters in the Digital Wellness Lab to synergize in researching, responding to, and innovating a digital environment in which we can raise healthy, smart, productive, and kind children.

Dr. Rich came to medicine after a 12-year career as a filmmaker, including apprenticing to Akira Kurosawa as assistant director on Kagemusha. His experience and expertise in medicine and media synergize in his health research and clinical work. Dr. Rich earned his B.A. in English and Film from Pomona College, his M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and his M.P.H. from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Among his many awards are the Society for Adolescent Health and Media (SAHM) New Investigator Award (1978) and the Iris Litt Visiting Professorship in Adolescent Health Research (2017) and the American Academy of Pediatrics Holroyd-Sherry (2005) and Adele Dellenbaugh Hoffman (2017) Awards. See here for recent press

Longer bio and CV can be found here: https://digitalwellnesslab.org/team/michael-rich/​​

Laura Higgins is Director of Community Safety and Digital Civility at Roblox with more than two decades of experience building proven safeguarding, online safety and civility programs. Roblox’s groundbreaking digital civility initiative is focused on providing the community with the skills needed to create positive online experiences in partnership with the world’s leading safety and industry organizations that drive meaningful change. Civility online is a new concept that’s based on existing principles—that everybody has a part to play in making the digital world a better place. 

In her previous role with the UK Safer Internet Centre (part of the “Better Internet for Kids” project funded by the European Commission), Laura founded several award-winning services including the Professionals Online Safety Helpline and the world’s first helpline dedicated to supporting victims of image based abuse. Laura has worked with the biggest names in tech sitting on Twitter and Snapchat’s advisory boards. She has spoken on digital safety topics across the globe and regularly appears in the media sharing her expertise with industry experts, parents and kids.

Dr. Elizabeth Milovidov is a mom to two tech-savvy little boys, a lawyer, law professor and eSafety consultant.

She is a member of the Working Group of experts on Digital Citizenship Education and an independent expert on Digital Parenting and Children and Internet for the Children’s Rights Division of Council of Europe.

She is an advisor on European Cooperation and International Projects for e-Enfance, a French online child protection association providing support to parents and children in the digital age.

Her core work involves researching solutions for parenting in the digital age and she has authored several guides and workbooks for parents, moderates a Facebook community for parents and is the founder of DigitalParentingCoach.com. a website and community with resources for parents.