This Might Be the Key to Keeping Your Kids Off Social Media

Published: December 31, 2024

This Might Be the Key to Keeping Your Kids Off Social Media

By Movieguide® Contributor

It can be difficult to navigate your teen’s social media habits, but collaborating with other families might be the key to keeping your kids off their phones.

“Your job is to protect your kid and keep them safe, not keep them happy,” psychologist Dr. Becky Kennedy said in a video posted to the Parents Instagram page.

“Of course, if you say no, then your kid is isolated,” social psychologist Dr. Jon Haidt added. But he has one tip that makes saying “no” easier: “Everything gets so much easier if you can coordinate with the parents of two or three of your kids friends.”

“You can start these conversations, non judgmentally, just by saying, ‘Hey, I’d love to talk about all these apps so many kids are on,'” Dr. Kennedy continued. “No judgment here. We’re all on the same team. We all want what’s best for our kids. I just want to figure it out together.”

Dr. Haidt added, “What kids are really afraid of as being the only one being alone.”

“I think it’s a great time to look in your community to see if there’s a couple other parents who don’t feel satisfied with the fact that their kid might already have these apps. They might be looking to get off of them and just need a kind of parent colleague to do it with,” Dr. Kennedy concluded.

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Several people commented, agreeing with the doctors.

“Yes, big topic in our school right now. It’s a mobile free school but not all parents are on board which makes this set up very hard for teachers and kids that have no phones. Very tricky and tense subject right now. Thank you for all the important work that you do,” one follower wrote.

Another said, “Ten years ago I did that very same thing. I reached out to the moms in my daughter’s ’squad,’ asking us all to be vigilant and to communicate. As soon as things started to go south for a couple of the girls and I reached back out to the moms to help me deal with it, they wouldn’t or couldn’t and didn’t. You might find yourself doing all the hard work and gatekeeping alone, but do it. Do it.”

HGTV stars Ben and Erin Napier started an organization, Osprey, to connect families who don’t want their kids on social media but also don’t want them to feel isolated.

“We are parents committed to helping our kids achieve social media-free childhoods until they graduate high school,” their website explains. “When adolescents have no access to social media, they gain access to deeper engagement with their families, interests and self assurance. When we change the culture around ‘everyone has it except my child’ by linking arms with other parents in our communities and committing to embargo social media together beginning in the elementary grades, we set our children up for success before peer pressure can take it from them.”

“We want to make sure our kids don’t feel left out when we don’t let them have social media, as kids through high school,” Erin told TODAY.com. “How do you do that? I think community is where you begin.”