Ask Ruff Ruffman

I don’t think I ever found out why the sky is blue. Not because I never wondered, but because my kids never asked.

If they had, I probably would’ve looked it up. But they didn’t, so I dodged that one. (Most of what I know about light comes from a Pink Floyd album cover anyway.)

That said, my kids asked plenty of other questions I did have to answer — like whether stamps cost money, how time zones work, and when they could get their own phones. And then my kids started asking bigger, more complicated questions, ones where I wasn’t always sure I had the answers.

These days, a lot of our questions — especially the tricky ones about technology — have been outsourced to Siri, Alexa, Google, or ChatGPT. But even with these tools, some questions don’t have simple answers.

Like these:

Is my phone listening to me? What’s an algorithm? Should I answer phone calls from unknown numbers? If the power just went out, did I just lose my work? Where are my car keys?

Your answers might be:

Probably not.

A set of rules or steps designed to solve a problem or perform a task.

Probably not.

It depends which program you were using.

They’re where you thought they were, look a bit harder.

Answering questions isn’t an exact science. That’s why we parents need all the help we can get.

Luckily, when it comes to questions about media and technology, we’ve got help. I’ve been producing PBS KIDS projects like Search It Up and Ruff Ruffman: Humble Media Genius to help kids (and parents) make sense of the digital world. In recent videos, we’ve been helping explain what artificial intelligence is, whether what we see online is real or fake, and exploring what kinds of false assumptions may be sneaking into the things that we think are true online.

The show’s host, Ruff Ruffman, is our lovable, animated dog friend. His rise to fame started with a science game show called FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman on PBS KIDS in 2006. Since then, Ruff has been a spy, a janitor, and a sushi chef. He’s a modern dog about town, trying to make it in a gig economy. And now, he’s making videos to help kids understand our digital world. His Humble Media Genius videos have been seen more than 140 million times. With our help, he is making more.

Despite the bluster, Ruff gets a lot of help behind the scenes. Information experts at GBH and PBS seek advice from partners at the National Association for Media Literacy Education and universities, as we guide Ruff’s advice. Ruff gets to put his comic spin on it, but the information comes from a host of trusted sources.

In our next round of videos, Ruff will tackle real questions from real kids about digital information and technology. And we want to hear from your kids in their own voices. What do they want to know about technology?

Last time, Ruff answered questions about screen time, which websites to trust, and even a few about his personal life. Some were silly, some were serious — but all were great. You can find them here, here, and here. And here.

Got a question of your own? Sure, send it in too! But this is a rare chance for your kids to get their trickiest internet and technology questions answered. We’ll do the heavy lifting.

And you? You can go back to looking for those keys. (Did you check your coat pocket? Maybe there’s a hole in the lining…)

Click here to Ask Ruff Ruffman!