Rosie Colosi lives in New Jersey and is a reporter for TODAY Parents. She has bylines in The Atlantic, The Week, MSNBC, and PureWow, and she has written 33 nonfiction children's books for Scholastic, Klutz, and Nat Geo Kids. Once upon a time, she played Mrs.
When social psychologist Jonathan Haidt published his book, 'The Anxious Generation,' in March 2024, he told TODAY.com that by the end of 2025, the role of screens in kids’ lives would look completely different.
Not everyone believed him. 'The general attitude was, 'Well, what are you going to do? The technology is here to stay. This is the way the kids connect. You can't fight the future,'' Haidt tells TODAY.com after his broadcast appearance on Sept. 11. He has been advocating for a play-based childhood rather than a phone-based one. 'There was a sense of inevitability, the sense that it's just too late, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube,' he continues. 'But if your kid's life depends on it, you put the toothpaste back in the tube, you find a way.' Parents have been re-evaluating their approach to screentime, scaling back on technology, introducing landlines and joining the longstanding “Wait Until 8th“ campaign to delay giving children a smartphone until the end of 8th grade. 'Parents, and especially mothers, rose up,' he says. 'Red states did it. Blue states did it, and so this has been an amazing demonstration of what we can do when we work together.' Restricting Kids' Phone Use in Schools Many schools have changed their rules around phones in the last year. According to Education Week, 31 states and the District of Columbia require school districts to restrict students’ use of cellphones in schools. Not everyone is thrilled. Some parents oppose school phone bans because they want to be able to get in touch with their children at any time for reasons as simple as changing a dentist appointment, or as intense as making sure they're safe during an episode of school violence. 'I understand that concern. I have kids myself,' Haidt shares. 'If something were to happen, we would all want to instantly call. We want to hear that they're OK ... but we have to do what's best for them, not what's best for us.' Haidt says that the experts agree on the best course of action for kids in an emergency situation. 'The last thing you want if there's a school shooting is every kid pulling out their phone, calling, crying, talking, not paying attention,' he explains. 'You want them to do what they drilled to do. You want them to be attentive and take action based on what's happening around them, not on their phone.' As for parents contacting kids for logistical matters during the school day, Haidt says, 'the job of a parent is to work yourself out of a job. You've got to teach your kid to be able to fend for themselves. It's absolutely vital that kids have that time away from their parents for the school day. ' Scaling Back Kids' Phone Use at Home It's one thing for parents to introduce a phone to a child at an older age, but it's another to try to scale back its use for a child who already has a phone. Haidt clarifies that he is not suggesting taking phones away from children already using them, but he does recommend reducing their usage. He suggests: Removing screens from bedrooms.Keeping phones in a separate, visible location, like a countertop or drawer.Joining parents in requesting a phone-free school day. Haidt notes that iPads are slightly better than smartphones because they're less portable, but if kids can access apps like Instagram, TikTok or Snapchat, there's a big risk that they'll 'get addicted' to talking to strangers. 'What you do not want to do is give your child their own touchscreen device, because at least 50% will become enslaved to it, and they will miss out on most of their childhood,' he says.
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