Movieguide® CEO Robby Baehr Releases The Discerning Family, Helping Parents Raise Kids Who Can Navigate a Screen-Saturated World

New book draws on Baehr's Hollywood experience, Christian faith, and research to help families move from simply restricting media to teaching lifelong discernment

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Parents cannot protect their children from every screen, algorithm, or influence they will encounter. But Robby Baehr, CEO of Movieguide®, believes they can prepare their children to navigate those influences with wisdom and confidence.

In his new book, The Discerning Family: Raising Kids Who Choose Well in a World That Chooses for Them, released October 6, Baehr offers parents a practical Christian framework for raising children who can think critically about the entertainment and media they consume.

Rather than focusing solely on screen limits, filters, or restrictions, Baehr argues that parents should help children develop something that lasts beyond the years when Mom or Dad controls the device: discernment.

"Parents tell me all the time that they feel outmatched," Baehr said. "They're up against companies that spend enormous sums studying how to hold their children's attention. But no filter or parental control can do what a mom or dad can do. A filter can block a screen for an afternoon. A discerning heart goes with your child everywhere, for the rest of their life."

The grandson of Golden Age Hollywood actor Bob Allen and the son of Movieguide® founders Dr. Ted Baehr and Lili Baehr, Robby Baehr comes from a family that has worked in Hollywood for nearly 100 years, giving him a perspective shaped by both Hollywood and family life. Today, as a father of five, he has seen firsthand how quickly entertainment, smartphones, gaming, and social media can become part of a child's daily environment.

That experience led him to a central question explored throughout the book: How can parents prepare children to make wise choices when the parent is no longer standing beside them?

From Restriction to Discernment
The Discerning Family encourages parents to create a home culture built around conversation, shared experiences and intentional choices rather than fear of technology or entertainment.

Baehr challenges parents to engage with what their children are watching, playing and scrolling, and to use those moments as opportunities for meaningful discussion.

"Media discernment isn't about saying no to everything," Baehr said. "It's about teaching our kids to ask what a story is really saying, who it wants them to become and whether those lines up with what God says is true, good and beautiful."

The book explores topics many families are navigating today, including when to introduce a first smartphone, phones in bedrooms, gaming, social media, parental modeling, family relationships and the role of conversation in helping children process what they consume.

Throughout the book, Baehr emphasizes that the goal is not simply to control what children watch today, but to prepare them to make thoughtful decisions throughout their lives.

Practical Tools Families Can Use
The book concludes with two resources designed to help families put those principles into practice. The Family Media Agreement gives parents and children a framework for establishing shared expectations around devices, social media, content, and family media habits.

The Three Questions provide a simple framework families can use after watching a movie, playing a game, or engaging with other media:

• Is this true?
• What does this ask me to love?
• What spirit does this leave in me?

The questions are designed to encourage conversation rather than interrogation and help children gradually develop their own ability to evaluate the messages and values they encounter.

Dr. Linda Labbo, Professor Emeritus at the University of Georgia and an educational consultant whose work has included projects involving Disney Jr., Disney Nature, Hasbro and Makematic: Untold History, said the book addresses important questions about the influence of media on children.

"Robby Baehr's book, The Discerning Family, hits at the heart of key issues by embedding research that targets how media not only shapes how children think and how they feel about themselves, but even who they become," Labbo said.

For Baehr, the book ultimately carries a hopeful message for parents who may feel they are losing influence in an increasingly personalized digital culture.

"My prayer is that parents close this book feeling equipped instead of overwhelmed," Baehr said. "I want families talking about what they watch at the dinner table, in the car and on the couch. If, years from now, there are kids who can look at a screen and think for themselves, and think biblically, this book will have done its job."

About the Book
The Discerning Family: Raising Kids Who Choose Well in a World That Chooses for Them, by Robby Baehr, was released October 6, 2026, and is available on Amazon.

About Robby Baehr
Robby Baehr is CEO of Movieguide® and executive producer of the annual Movieguide® Awards, which recognize excellence in family-friendly and faith-based entertainment. The son of Movieguide® founders Dr. Ted Baehr and Lili Baehr, he grew up immersed in the entertainment industry and has spent his career working at the intersection of Hollywood, media, and Christian values.

A graduate of Wheaton College, Baehr has worked in entertainment marketing and consulting and has spoken internationally about the influence of entertainment on culture and family life. In The Discerning Family, he draws on that experience, his Christian faith, and his life as a father of five to help parents raise children capable of making thoughtful choices in an increasingly media-saturated world.

Media Contact:
Taylor Bryant
Media Director | Crosswind Media & PR
C: 512.970.9951
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INTERVIEW AVAILABILITY:
Robby Baehr is available for interviews about The Discerning Family, Christian parenting, children and media, smartphones, gaming, entertainment, and practical ways parents can help children develop lifelong discernment.

SOURCE Movieguide®