*By Christian Smith*
A recent report claiming that kids shouldn't have more than two hours of daily screen time has sparked a debate among parents and scientists, but the man in charge of Amazon's family and kids division thinks the debate is more nuanced than the study may suggest.
"All screen time is not created equal," Kurt Beidler, general manager of kids and family at Amazon ($AMZN), told Cheddar. "There's lots of wonderful things kids can do online, and we try to bring those experiences to kids."
The study published in [The Lancet](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(18)30278-5/fulltext) found a correlation between screen time and mental cognition. However, it didn't prove that increasing screen time decreased mental capacity.
To help parents monitor their child’s activity online, Amazon developed FreeTime ー a suite of parental controls for screen time, content prioritization, and data security.
The software launched in 2012 and enables kids to safely surf the web on devices like the children's edition of the Fire tablet, which includes over 20,000 e-books, videos, apps, and games tailor-made for a younger set.
Many parents are concerned with giving their kids access to an unfettered internet ー especially given the recent data hacks on platforms like Facebook ($FB) ー so Amazon built in a data security safeguard.
"Kids can do whatever they want in FreeTime Unlimited, and to the extent parents aren't comfortable with them doing that, they can see what the kids are doing, and they can delete that data if that's not something that they're comfortable with," Beidler said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/how-amazon-is-helping-parents-monitor-their-kids-activity-online).
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
