A year after a middle school in Minnesota banned phones, the principal is reporting students are “happy.” Phone-related problems before the ban included “interactions of bullying, of setting up fights, (and) the gambit of a lot of the negative things …” but that’s all changed. One parent says that because of banning phones, her son “is thriving and really focused and doing really well.” He even “[p]articipates in class discussions.”

As social psychologist Jonathan Haidt said on X, “What parent would expose their child to so many documented risks from any other consumer product?”  So, why do we allow it with phones? Haidt recommends “giving only flip phones before high school and delaying the opening of social media accounts until 16.” Another expert on the impact of social media is Jean Twenge. She has yet to grant social media to her 16-year-old daughter. 

Look—the data has never been clearer. Regulate your kids’ phones and keep them off social media as long as possible. They’ll thank you for it someday.