Particle.news
Download on the App Store
4 ARTICLES
·
2h ago

Jonathan Haidt Urges Parents: No Bedroom Devices, Delay Smartphones Until High School

He says scaling back access is essential for children’s mental health, citing near‑universal teen phone ownership and research linking later first‑device age to better wellbeing.

Image
(MoMo Productions)
A bar chart showing Majorities of parents say their kids use tablets and smartphones; watching TV is especially common
A bar chart showing Screen time is a daily priority for most parents, but fewer say it’s the biggest one

Overview

  • Haidt tells CNBC the average child’s recreational screen time is eight to ten hours a day, not counting school use.
  • He identifies unsupervised use behind closed doors as the highest risk and frames a bedroom ban as his No. 1 household rule.
  • He advises keeping screens to shared spaces only and using a family check‑out system with a designated box on the kitchen counter.
  • Common Sense Media data show about 40% of two‑year‑olds have their own tablet and 88% to 95% of teens have smartphones.
  • School exposure continues to grow, with Google reporting Chromebooks used by 50 million students and teachers daily.