Free Download · Parent Edition

Your child's school isn't asking
the most important question.
This book is.

What AI is doing to how young people learn, think, and develop — and what parents can actually do about it.

By Kevin J. Roberts, M.A. · Author of Cyber Junkie

Parent Edition
The Effort Crisis
What AI Is Doing to Your Child's Ability to Think
(And What You Can Do About It)

Kevin J. Roberts, M.A.
Free Download

The question every parent needs to be asking right now.

Your child used AI on their homework last night. Their school almost certainly has no framework for it. And almost nobody is asking the question that matters most: what should students still do themselves before they turn to AI?

This book is the answer parents have been looking for — direct, research-backed, and written by someone who has spent two decades sitting across from the students whose lives are being shaped by these choices.

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What's inside the book

Chapter 1
Houses in Turmoil (Again)
The two-phone trick, the resource room exploit, virtual school automation, and why your child's homework grades mean less than you think.
Chapter 2
The Nature of This New Beast
What ChatGPT actually is, what MIT researchers found it does to the developing brain, and why this is nothing like a calculator.
Chapter 3
Families in the AI Age
Real stories: the perfect essay, the college application shortcut, the parent who checked the browser history. What happened next.
Chapter 4
The Conversation Your Family Needs to Have
Calculator mode vs. ghostwriter mode. The Family AI Agreement. Scripts for the conversation that changes everything.
Chapter 5
Your First Week: An Action Plan
Five things you can do right now. The red flags to watch for. What to say to teachers. How to hold the line without destroying trust.
Chapter 8
Raising Thinkers
What AI cannot replace — and how to build a home that protects your child's capacity to think, struggle, and become someone real.

About Kevin J. Roberts

Kevin J. Roberts, M.A., did his graduate work in neuroscience and spent two decades inside the homes and schools where this crisis is happening. He collaborated with psychiatrist Dr. David Rosenberg of Children's Hospital of Michigan on a program featured on ABC's 20/20, examining the mental health and brain differences in screen-addicted youth. He has presented Grand Rounds at Children's Hospital of Michigan — twice.

His 2010 book Cyber Junkie addressed screen addiction before it became a mainstream public health conversation. The Effort Crisis is his seventh book. He is the co-founder of The AI Edge and the researcher behind America's AI Report Card — the first comprehensive scoring of state AI education policies.

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The conversation about AI and your child's thinking can't wait. This book gives you the language, the framework, and the stories to start it.

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Or email kevin@kevinjroberts.net with subject "Parent Book" and he'll send it directly.