By Michaela Gordoni
As parents learn more about the dangers smartphones pose to their children’s development, many moms and dads have ditched tech altogether to give their kids a real-world childhood.
“Most of the parenting books on technology kind of accept this premise that at some point your child will get a smartphone and social media, so here’s how to mitigate the damage,” Clare Morell, director of the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s Technology and Human Flourishing Project, told CBN.
Morell interviewed smartphone-free families in her book, The Tech Exit: A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones.
“My research had shown me that screentime limits and parental controls really weren’t enough to fully and sufficiently protect kids from the harms out there,” she explained. “So, I had this hypothesis of, ‘I think this is possible, I want to find out if people have done this, how have they done this?’ So, because that book didn’t exist, I wrote it.”
Morell spoke with a mom of five, Maureen Ferguson, who said she educated her kids on the dangers of social media.
“I had all of my kids watch the movie, THE SOCIAL DILEMMA, in which these tech executives explain how they addict kids,” she said. “So, my kids kind of had the attitude of, ‘Hmm, okay, I don’t want to be manipulated. I understand now how these social media companies are trying to addict me and how they’re trying to manipulate me and manipulate my thinking.'”
She also surrounded herself with friends who thought the same way.
Ferguson gave each of her kids normal dumb phones when they got to high school. She believes they have richer lives because they didn’t spend as much time as their peers looking at screens.
“I teamed up with other moms to say hey let’s make this easy, you know, we’re entering the teenage years, how can we make this easier on all of us?” she said. “It’s easier on the kids and it’s easier on the parents to just keep your kids off of it entirely at least until they’re older, at least until their brains are kind of wired up a little bit more.”
Motherly writer Rachel Gorton said when she and her spouse took away all screens from their kids, including TV, they were more active and creative with their time.
Related: 5 Tips to Help Your Child Manage Their Screen Time
“If they ask, we suggest a different option and typically have to put our agenda aside and engage with them for a bit of time,” she said. “As soon as we do, they forget about that game on the iPad or show they were asking for five minutes ago, and we get an opportunity to tap into our childhood through play which we’ve really enjoyed.”
Movieguide® founder Dr. Ted Baehr wrote in The Culture Wise Family:
Part of the problem with television and movies is the lack of time for the viewer to reflect, react or review the information he or she is receiving—processes that are absolutely necessary for cognitive devel-opment. The very act of watching television and movies can be harmful to the cognitive development of children and, as a consequence, may adversely influence their moral, social, emotional and religious development.”
For those who’ve already given their kids smartphones, Morell recommends trying a 30-day detox.
“So setting aside 30 days on your calendar and coming up with a plan of activities of what you’re going to be doing those 30 days instead, actually making it fun and exciting for your family, something to look forward to,” she told CBN.
Morell strongly believes that parents are doing their children a service when they refrain to give them smartphones.
“I had this hypothesis going into the book that this was possible and I wanted to learn how, but what I came out of interviewing all these families thinking was just not only is this possible, this is the best possible thing we can do for our kids and that the benefits are just overwhelmingly positive,” she said.
“The Tech Exit is really a positive ‘no.’ These families saying ‘no’ to the smartphones and social media are saying ‘yes’ so much more in real life.”
Could removing smartphones change your child’s life?
Read Next: Excessive Screen Time Cost Americans $151 Billion in 2023
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