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To protect adolescent sleep cycles and prevent late-night scrolling, Haidt says parents should completely ban smartphones from this specific room overnight.
What is the bedroom?
A deep dive into why parents need to maintain strong emotional connections with their children to prevent peer attachment from taking over.
What is Hold On to Your Kids by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté?
Haidt encourages parents to give their children more of this, such as walking to the store alone or playing in a park unsupervised.
What is Childhood Independence (or Free-Range Parenting)?
Between 2010 and 2019, the amount of time teens spent hanging out with friends in person plummeted by what percent?
What is nearly 50 percent?
A collaborative action guide created with Dr. Becky Kennedy providing practical, empowering steps for parents to collectively roll back phone usage in their communities.
What is Good Inside x TAG Parent Action Guide?
If parents need a way to track or contact their middle schooler for safety, Haidt recommends giving them this type of basic device that lacks an app store and web browser.
What is a "dumb" phone? (Acceptable: flip phone, Gabb phone, or basic smartwatch).
A book that explores how extreme parental pressure and affluence can create disconnected, anxious children.
What is The Price of Privilege by Madeline Levine?
Haidt’s first foundational norm specifies that children should not be given this specific type of device before entering high school.
What is a smartphone?
The average teen now spends between this amount of hours a day on screen-based leisure.
What is 7-9 hours a day?
Studies cited by Haidt show that infants exposed to regular screen time at 12 to 18 months show measurable developmental delays in problem-solving and this other major area by age two.
What is communication (or language)?
Sending a child into a grocery store alone with a $10 bill to buy ingredients is an example of fostering this quality, which has been severely restricted by modern parenting.
What is childhood independence? (Acceptable: real-world autonomy).
Recommended resources and programs for parents looking to prevent or break childhood screen/social media addiction
What is ScreenStrong?
To break the collective action trap, Haidt encourages parents to form these neighborhood or school agreements so multiple families roll back tech access at the same time.
What are parent pacts or collective agreements?
Since the "Great Rewiring" (approx. 2010), emergency room visits for self-harm among young girls (ages 10–14) have increased to what percent
What is 188%?
To protect early brain development, Haidt aligns with the American Academy of Pediatrics by recommending this much daily screen time for children under 24 months.
What is zero or none? Nada
Haidt recommends throwing these local neighborhood events to get kids off screens and help parents build a "network of trust" with the people living closest to them.
What is a block party?
Haidt's primary recommended program for schools. It provides a free, K-12 curriculum (and "Play Club" guides) designed to help educators assign independence-building "homework" that encourages children to do things on their own.
What is LEDGROW?
Haidt calls on governments to update this 1998 U.S. law, which currently sets the age of digital adulthood at a remarkably low 13 years old.
What is COPPA? The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.
Social media apps are designed using this variable. The exact same psychological trick used in Las Vegas slot machines.
What is the Variable Ratio Reinforcement" schedule?
This psychological term describes the fragmented mental state of a parent who is physically present with their child but constantly checking notifications or emails.
What is Continuous Partial Attention?
Haidt utilizes block parties to turn standard, isolated suburbs into these—his term for neighborhoods intentionally designed to foster childhood autonomy and outdoor socialization.
What are "Playborhoods"?
Co-written by Haidt and Zach Rausch, this publication serves as a running database of ongoing research, tips, and updates regarding the youth mental health crisis and tech regulation.
What is After Babel Substack?
To protect developing minds from algorithmic manipulation, this is the minimum age Haidt recommends for opening social media accounts.
What is 16 years old?
Haidt suggests that families should implement this "Sabbath" once a week to reconnect.
What is a Digital (or Tech-Free) Sabbath?
Borrowed from a Japanese term meaning "pulling inward," Haidt uses this word to describe the growing global phenomenon of young people (especially young men) who completely withdraw from physical society and isolate themselves in their rooms with digital devices.
What is Hikikomori?