Has This Actress Found the Solution to Keeping Kids Away from Smartphones?
By Movieguide® Contributor
Actress Kristen Bell and her husband Dax Shepard believe they’ve found the solution to the screen and social media addiction that plagues younger generations.
Their solution begins with being open with their children about the addictive properties of phones from the start.
In a recent interview on THE VIEW, Bell shared how they went about it.
“To be honest, the initial conversations we had with our kids were about how phones are a trick. We felt that was an interesting way to introduce it,” she began. “Whenever my husband and I would pick up it, we would go, ‘You know, this phone, it has all these tricks inside that make me want to come back to it.’”
These conversations made their daughters Delta, 9, and Lincoln, 11, suspicious of smartphones.
Bell also expressed her thankfulness for people being leery of and exploring the consequences of children using screens.
“And then, to be honest, I’m just glad people are researching it and exploring it,” she continued. “Because with every new piece of technology — look, cars. Cars are so great. We can get everywhere! And then we’re like, ‘Whoops, accidents. We gotta do seat belts.’”
She continued, “There’s going to have to be progression with our understanding and how we’re caring for the people who are using this technology.”
Movieguide® recently reported on some of the potential dangers of excessive screentime:
Last month, JAMA Paediatrics conducted a study and connected toddlers’ screen time to atypical sensory processing. They found that too much screen time can create sensory processing issues.
“Sensory processing involves the integration of information received through the body’s sensory systems … to perceive and understand the world around the individual,” said Dr. Karen Heffler and David Bennett, two of the JAMA study’s authors.
“There are a wide variety of behaviors that can indicate a sensory processing issue. A child might seek out sensory behaviors, for example, by spinning their body, or they might try to avoid a sensory experience by not trying a new food,” HuffPost said. But “none of these responses alone necessarily signify a problem.”
Shepherd and Bell have been vocal about protecting their kids from screens in the past.
“We don’t have a phone problem ’cause they’re not in the mix,” Shepard explained in 2022 of how they regulate screentime. “And iPods aren’t, iPads aren’t in the mix and video games.”
Now that their daughters are a little older, they do have iPods to text and listen to music, but still no cell phones, Momtastic reported.
