'VERITY'

Rated R for sexual content, some nudity, language, violence and bloody images.

What it’s about: A struggling writer enters a complex psychosexual relationship with a married couple when she's hired to finish a book series by a popular novelist.

The kid attractor factor: This is more of an adult melodrama, not for kids.

Good ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Here’s how you create an elite athlete: Wake up at 5 a.m. Run wind sprints uphill. Endure your coach’s yelling. Tally 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. Train in the offseason. And if you can’t cut it, you’re out.

That was part of the culture of American youth soccer when Ted Kroeten rose up as a coach decades ago. He ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- This summer a schism fractured the baseball community in tight-knit St. Louis Park, Minnesota, where the modern forces of youth sports were about to dismantle a suburban relic.

For years, kids as old as 12 could still play Little League at a local park for a couple hundred bucks, placed on teams with kids of varying abilities. No...Read more

'HEART OF THE BEAST'

Rated PG-13 for violence, peril, bloody/injury images and some language.

What it’s about: A Special Forces Army veteran and his combat dog fight to endure the Alaskan wilderness after a plane crash.

The kid attractor factor: This is more of an adult drama with dangerous and emotional situations, but kids might be ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- As a kid, Kristen Mueller spent her summers playing baseball with friends at a park a couple of blocks away. In high school, she was a three-sport varsity athlete and later played hockey for her college team.

But if her kids join today’s hyper-organized youth sports culture, they will be expected to get serious, not dabble. ...Read more

'RESIDENT EVIL'

Rated R for strong bloody violence, gore and language throughout.

What it’s about: This reboot of the video game franchise follows a medical courier on a treacherous journey into a zombie-infested Raccoon City.

The kid attractor factor: This horror survival thriller is ooey, gooey, bloody and intensely violent, not for kids....Read more

'THE UPRISING'

Rated R for violence/bloody images

What it’s about: Paul Greengrass imagines the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 in England as an action thriller.

The kid attractor factor: This bloody revolutionary film is not for kids — too violent. For adults only.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Revolution is inevitable under oppression.

Violence:...Read more

'ONSLAUGHT'

Rated R for strong bloody violence, some gore, sexual material/nudity, and language.

What it’s about: A trio of scientifically engineered supersoldiers wreak havoc on a desert trailer park, whose residents fight back.

The kid attractor factor: This bloody horror/action flick does not have any appeal for kids.

Good lessons/bad ...Read more

My 5-year-old twin boys, Mikey and Charlie, started kindergarten a couple of weeks ago, marking the end of their preschool careers. They walked into class wearing backpacks full of back-to-school supplies, like markers and glue. With their summers in the rearview mirror, they stepped into a world not with circle time or naps, but with desks, ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California legislators on Monday sent two bills to Gov. Gavin Newsom that would change how chatbots are made and regulated in the state. The legislation could have ramifications across the country for the still-emerging technology.

Senate Bill 1119 would require companion chatbot operators to analyze the design of their ...Read more

Over the last five years, efforts to make social networks Facebook and Instagram safer for young people have erupted across courts, classrooms and capitals.

Now Meta Platforms, the parent company of the world’s most popular social networks, faces another big moment of reckoning.

On Wednesday, Meta agreed to pay up to $17 billion over 10 ...Read more

ST. LOUIS -- Cynthia Changyit Levin first noticed her mom’s political views shifting in 2008 when Barack Obama won the presidency.

Levin lived in Chicago at the time, while her mother, Lazette, lived in Oklahoma. The change surprised Levin. She had grown up in Minnesota, where her mom voted for Walter Mondale in 1984, the only state the ...Read more

THE DOG STARS

Rated R for strong violence and language.

What it’s about: A post-apocalyptic tale of survival and finding things to live for.

The kid attractor factor: This is an adult drama with some violence, action and heavy themes, not for kids.

Good lessons/bad lessons: There can still be life after death.

Violence: Some scenes of ...Read more

'MUTINY'

Rated R for strong/bloody violence, and language.

What it’s about: It's "Die Hard" on a container ship! Jason Statham seeks vengeance and justice on the high seas.

The kid attractor factor: This is a bloody action film — not much appeal for kids.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Never let Jason Statham stowaway on your human ...Read more

'THE END OF OAK STREET'

Rated PG-13 for some strong violent content, bloody images, some strong language and suggestive material.

What it’s about: A suburban town is time warped to the Paleolithic era and has to fight off dinosaurs to survive.

The kid attractor factor: This is a family action survival film, teens might be drawn to the genre...Read more

If you aren’t among the millions of pickleball players, the fastest growing sport in America, watch “The Dink” on Apple TV to get a glimpse of what you’re missing.

Jake Johnson plays Dusty, a former tennis prodigy whose career was thwarted early when he broke his wrist during a match with the for-real tennis star Andy Roddick. Now he ...Read more

Declining enrollment in California public schools is spawning a new and growing partnership that is helping to keep child-care centers in business — vacant classrooms are being filled with toddlers and babies.

From Los Angeles to Solano counties, nonprofit day-care operators see underused facilities already centered on children — spacious ...Read more

'ONE NIGHT ONLY'

Rated R for sexual material, language and brief nudity.

What it’s about: The government has banned premarital sex, except for one night a year. Can two crazy single kids fall in love?

The kid attractor factor: This is more for young adults.

Good lessons/bad lessons: It's not all about sex, even when it's all about sex.

...Read more

'SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY'

Rated PG-13 for sequences of action/violence and some language.

What it’s about: Tom Holland's Peter Parker is all grown up and attempting to navigate adult life and the Spider-Man life with very few friends.

The kid attractor factor: The character and superhero spectacle.

Good lessons/bad lessons: We can't do ...Read more