By Kayla DeKraker
THE BREADWINNER stars Nate Bargatze and Mandy Moore chimed in on a hot-button parenting issue: how to navigate technology use with their children.
“I think our daughter was 13,” Bargatze told Parade about when his daughter, Harper, got her first phone. “She has no social media, none of that stuff. We’re getting pounded about that — she wants us to give it to her. We’re not going to. It’s not at least till 16, and then we can see.”
The clean comedian added, “Phones are tough. Parents need to align, and we all need to agree on an age of all this. ‘Cause it’s like someone gives a 6-year-old a phone, and then you just start getting crushed.”
Bargatze explained that instead of a phone, they began with letting their daughter have an Apple Watch.
“We did Apple Watch at first, which is another little trick where you could do like cellular Apple Watch,” he said.
Moore added “And then they don’t have a ton of access to apps or anything. You’re able to get in touch with them!”
Related: Nate Bargatze Adds This Clean Comedian’s Podcast to His Network
The debate about when children should get smartphones is a major cultural conversation right now.
American journalist Katie Couric believes this should happen when a child gets their driver’s license.
“Before a teen starts driving, they don’t really need a smartphone. No-internet phones work just fine, especially since your middle-school or high-school-age kid probably has a laptop (either their own or the school’s) to access the internet when they need it,” she said, adding, “Once teens start driving, having the maps app and internet access can be very useful.”
The problems caused by smartphone use before the age of 12 are numerous, including an increased risk of depression, obesity and sleep problems, one study found.
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt recommends no smartphones before high school and no social media before age 16.
“Millennials went through puberty with flip phones, and flip phones aren’t particularly bad. You use them just to communicate,” Haidt told ABC in 2024. “It was when we gave kids smartphones and then right around that time, they also got…social media accounts. When kids move their social lives onto social media like that, it’s not human. It doesn’t help them develop. And right away, mental health collapses.”
Regardless of what the exact age is, we can all agree that parents need to be extremely mindful and oversee any child phone use.
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