With Michael Wipfli, founder of the wonderful Australian campaign "36 Months," aiming to delay kids opening social media accounts for 3 years (36 months, from 13 to 16). And he succeeded — Australia is enforcing 16 as a minimum for social media accounts in December.

Not all screen time is bad for kids. Schedule a movie night! My thoughts via @axios.com www.axios.com/newsletters/...

Instagram is not safe for kids. If you think that sexualized content shouldn't be recommended to teenage users, I agree with you!

Video and research by the great org @heatinitiative.bsky.social

A funny take on adapting to #phonefreeschools, from the Frisch School in NJ

Chart from "The Anxious Generation." How do we reverse this? We get young people to stop spending 5-9 hours a day on social media and video games, and we get them back to real life.

Two Gen Z orgs—Appstinence and the Reconnect Movement—are leading a mass exodus from social media.

📵🤸‍♀️🌳 “Time to Refuse” starts in NYC on World Mental Health Day, October 10th, 2025 at 6pm EST in Tompkins Square Park. Come delete one account of your choosing, at 7pm. More at timetorefuse.com

What happens when we give kids a smartphone — we ask the impossible. A wonderful PSA by Smartphone-Free Childhood US.

The latest map of phone policies by state, as the school year starts. Red is best (full day); Orange is class-time only, which is much less effective. Gold is that local schools must develop a policy, any policy. apnews.com/article/scho...

My thanks to everyone who has bought & gifted the book — we are amid an international cultural shift on the topic of kids & touch-screen devices. Parents are fed up, schools are fed up, even kids are fed up (see previous post).

A major essay on what teens think abt social media, in The Australian.

All these quotes from teens abt how locked-in they are into social media underscore the need for collective action. Parents, please consider delaying smartphones & social media. It’s easier if you band together w/ other parents.

The attention apocalypse. This report is astonishing.

John Burn-Burdoch is one of the journalists doing the most to help us understand the massive changes to society, consciousness, and now personality in the smarphone era. @financialtimes.com

How have achievement gaps grown in the US since 2015?

Surprisingly, not much BETWEEN demographic groups, but the bottom 25% WITHIN each group has dropped a lot. The latest on our (free) Substack, After Babel: www.afterbabel.com/p/silent-ach...

The average young person today is on course to spend 25 years of their life on their phone. (Plus more on other screens.) Most of them don't want to live this way, but feel trapped.

How about we delay giving smartphones and tablets till at least 14?

New by me in the Times: A The Harris Poll survey found most parents wish their kids grew up in a world w/o #socialmedia, expressing the same level of regret as for alcohol & guns.

#Smartphones and YouTube were lower.

Bicycles were regretted by only 9%, despite kids sometimes getting hurt on bikes.

Spoke to the great Prof Laurie Santos about smartphones & childhood:
🎧👉 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

NEW: The largest-ever expert survey finds consensus about rising youth #mentalhealth problems. This sizable survey should guide legislative action and help solve the problems families face with smartphones and social media in the US and the broader world.

Lead author: @valeriocapraro.bsky.social

A stunning essay in the @financialtimes.com on the international decline in the ability to read, reason, focus, and learn new things. It began or accelerated in the early 2010s. It's hitting teens AND adults. Self-report and objective scores.

Sobering new data from the UK: Most people think social media has gotten worse in general, less safe for young people, and more addictive. @moreincommonuk.bsky.social

Australia just passed an under-16 social media accounts ban.

Here in the US? We are stalled on a very basic bill asking not much at all of social media companies. Please call your representative through this easy tool and ask them to vote for KOSA. It takes 2 min 🙏 designitforus.org/emails-and-c...