'Phone-based childhood' is not just a digital distraction but a direct route to anxiety and depression.

Daily Maverick

30-04-2025

In his book The Anxious Generation, author Jonathan Haidt advocates for far stricter rules for smartphone use to allow children to develop naturally.
Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist at New York University's Stern School of Business. His research examines the foundations of morality, and how morality varies across cultural and political divisions. Haidt is the author of several New York Times bestsellers and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Since 2018, he has been studying the contributions of social media to the decline of teen mental health and the rise of political dysfunction.
His main idea is that children are overprotected offline but underprotected online, and this is causing a decline in their wellbeing. His proposed solutions include smartphone bans in schools, raising the age for social media use to 16 years, enforcing the existing limits on social media much more strictly and promoting more play and adventurous activities offline.
In his 2024 book, The Anxious Generation, Haidt explains that in the 'real world' children are conscious of the bodies of others and interact at the given moment and invest in relationships, whereas in the 'virtual world' they are disembodied and nobody is needed. Communication involves a substantial number of one-to-many communications, and multiple communications in parallel.
Haidt introduces the idea of a 'phone-based childhood' and argues that the decline in unsupervised outdoor play has led to significant mental health issues in Generation Z — those born after 1995.
Decline in teen mental health
Part 1 of the book lays out the facts about the decline in teen mental health and wellbeing in the 21st century, indicated by a sharp rise in the rates of anxiety, depression and self-harm.
In part 2, he explains that the reach of the mental health crisis lies in parental fearfulness and overprotection. In the 1990s, smartphones, along with overprotection, acted like experienced blockers that made it difficult for children and adolescents to get real-world social experiences.
Haidt examines how smartphones and social media affect childhood development, focusing on five key aspects: slow-growth childhood, free play, attunement, social learning and sensitive periods for learning. He further discusses the importance of unsupervised, risky play for children's psychological development, and contrasts the increasing restrictions on children's physical activities with their unrestricted access to the digital world.
He argues that unsupervised outdoor play builds resilience and confidence and teaches children how to handle risks and challenges.
Four foundational harms
In part 3, Haidt presents research that shows that a phone-based childhood disrupts child development in several ways. He explores four foundational harms: sleep deprivation, social deprivation, attention fragmentation and addiction. He then zooms in on girls and shows that social media doesn't just correlate with mental illness, but causes it.
The author explains why social media harms girls more than boys, outlining four main reasons: visual social comparison and perfectionism, relational aggression, emotional sharing and contagion, and predation and harassment.
Haidt also explores the unique challenges boys face in the digital age, discussing how digital immersion leads to social isolation and fragmented attention. Part 3 concludes by highlighting the impact of technology on spiritual wellbeing, arguing that the phone-based life leads to spiritual degradation for both adolescents and adults.
Part 4 underlines the urgent need for societal action to mitigate the harmful effects of smartphones and social media on children. Haidt discusses the exploitative practices of tech companies, and proposes several legislative actions such as asserting a duty of care, raising the age of internet adulthood, and facilitating age verification.
Haidt further outlines strategies for schools to address the growing mental health crisis among students, advocating for phone-free schools and more free play. He provides parents with practical strategies to foster healthier development in children, emphasising balancing independence and protection.
I wrote to Haidt and asked him why he thought his book was taking the world by storm. His reply was simple: 'All around the world, wherever children have access to touchscreen devices, those devices have moved to the centre of their lives. From then on, family life becomes a fight over screen time. Everyone hates it.
'Mothers, in particular, feel their children being pulled away into a strange and inhumane place. The global rebellion against the phone-based childhood is being driven overwhelmingly by mothers.'
What to do?
Haidt calls for collective action to address these challenges. Parents, schools, governments and tech companies must work together to create a healthier environment for children to grow up in.
He outlines four reforms or new norms that would provide a foundation on which a healthier childhood could be forged for the digital age. He hopes that these new norms will reverse the two big but well-intentioned mistakes we've made: 'Overprotecting children in the real world (where they need to learn from vast quantities of independent real-world experience) and underprotecting them online (where many are being severely harmed, especially during their vulnerable years of early puberty).'
He writes: 'It is often hard for one family to swim against the tide of ever-increasing screen time, but if we act together, we turn the tide.'
His suggestions are:
No smartphones before high school: Parents should delay children's entry into round-the-clock internet access by giving only basic phones (with limited apps and no internet browser) before the age of about 14.
No social media before 16: Let children get through the most vulnerable period of brain development before connecting them to a firehose of social comparison and algorithmically chosen influencers.
Phone-free schools: In all schools from primary to high school, students should store their phones, smartwatches and any other personal devices that can send or receive texts in phone lockers or locked pouches during the school day to free up their attention.
More independence, free play and responsibility in the real world: It's the way children naturally develop social skills, overcome anxiety and become independent young adults.
In response to what governments can do in developing countries, he replied: 'The first and most powerful and least expensive step that all governments can take is to mandate that phones be stored away in a safe place for the full school day.
'Whenever that policy is strictly enforced, the results are transformative. Discipline problems go down. Attendance goes up. School becomes a lot more fun. Teachers and administrators always say the same thing: 'We hear laughter in the hallways again.'' DM
Dr Mark Potterton is the principal of Sacred Heart Primary School and director of the Three2Six Refugee Children's Education Project.