Childhood is a time of play—free of work and financial obligations. It’s a time to enjoy the freedoms that disappear with the responsibilities of age.
The years of play are fundamental to each person’s ability to grow into a healthy, capable, functional adult.
A Call to Action
In 2018, 65 percent of teenagers surveyed said they wished they had better self-control over their smartphone use and that they spent less time on them. That unwelcome compulsion may now be afflicting younger children. In 2015, only 11 percent of 8-year-olds had received their first smartphone. In 2021, that number leapt to 31 percent, according to data compiled by SellCell.
Parents can see the signs of excessive cellphone use in their children if they know what to look for, Anthony Anzalone, a clinical psychologist at Stony Brook Medicine in New York state, told The Epoch Times. These include the child being preoccupied with the internet, spending significant time online, and being less attentive to real-world tasks.
“Some children will use it as a way of escaping from problems or relieving negative moods,” he said.
Parents may also notice their children get upset when they have to put down their phones to do homework or spend time with their families.
The Impact of Early Smartphone Use
Early smartphone use can undermine childhood development by depriving children of the chance to gain many cognitive and social skills essential for their growth, experts say. Smartphones foster social comparison, expose children to online violence and sexual content, shorten attention spans, maximize distractions, and increase the incidence of cyberbullying—issues that could be largely resolved by not putting the internet at their fingertips.Exposing children to mobile phones and social media early in life can be a risk factor for different key stages of child development, Catherine Nobile, a psychologist and director of Nobile Psychology in Long Island, New York, told The Epoch Times. Early childhood (0 to 5 years) is a particularly important time.
“Excessive screen time during this time can hinder language and social skills development in children,” she said.
The years that follow are also critical.
“Children undergo major cognitive, emotional, and social development in middle childhood (6 to 12 years),” Nobile said.
Community Support and Engagement
The pledge encourages parents to gather support within their schools and advocate for joint commitments within grades or districts. To activate their pledge, a group of at least 10 families must sign on from a single school. Once activated, families gain access to a list of those who have taken the pledge and can collaborate on strategies to navigate a smartphone-free childhood.Dr. Vera Feuer is a New York state-based Northwell Health physician specializing in child and adolescent psychiatry. She told The Epoch Times that increased time spent in front of screens for very young children decreases literacy skills, especially early reading skills. There are also other ways it affects development.
“One way is the direct impact of the content. [Another is] the amount of time spent,” she said. “But then also there’s this concept that we call ‘crowding out.’”
Isolated in ‘Cellphone Silos’
Noah Kass, a licensed psychotherapist in New York City, told The Epoch Times that the issue is not that families spend less time together than they used to, but that they are “alone together,” isolated and disconnected in their private “cellphone silos.”
Kass pointed out how conversations with partners and children are constantly interrupted by notifications such as texts, calls, emails, and news alerts. “Not all screens are created equal,” he said.
Kass invoked the iconic 1950s image of the American family with TV dinners and watching their shows.
“Sure, they were watching a screen, but they were doing it together—communicating, laughing, and sometimes even sharing an emotional experience,” he said. “Technology, and particularly the use of smartphones, seems to be creating separation between parents and children, often leading to miscommunication because family members aren’t fully present to hear each other.”
Kass explained that with personal connections compromised, families become vulnerable emotionally and physically.
“Cellphone use impacts the quality of conversations between parents and children, making it harder for parents to learn about their children’s lives and harder for children to express their thoughts and emotions honestly,” he said.
“Unrestrained, unregulated, and uncontrolled” cellphone use, especially among young children in the late elementary and early middle school years, leads to difficulties in processing sensory input and managing emotions such as anger and fear. This can lead to elevated cortisol levels, which further impair children’s ability to handle stress, Kass said.
A Shift in Parental Attitudes Toward Technology and Childhood
The Wait Until 8th movement represents a shift in parents’ beliefs about how the internet affects their children. As more families delay smartphone access, the movement’s organizers hope to foster a childhood that emphasizes human connection and active play over isolation and screen time.Dr. Michelle Dees, a board-certified psychiatrist at Luxury Psychiatry Medical Spa in Chicago, told The Epoch Times that when families aren’t distracted from each other by cellphones, they are bound to have a stronger connection.
“Such a direct approach helps families communicate their feelings and thoughts, thereby forming deeper relationships,” she said. “Over time, such conversations can foster warmth and compassion, which are foundational to any family.”
She added that by delaying cellphone use, families can undertake more collaborative activities such as playing board games or endeavors outside the home, which will improve relationships and create lasting memories.
“Such activities promote relationships through teamwork and cooperation,” she said. “They promote internal family cohesiveness, [and] in addition, quality time fosters an opportunity to share what was learned during individual day-to-day activities.”
Dees pointed out that children will more easily learn to manage their emotions and stress in environments without cellphones.
“Without the frequent attentional pulls from phones, children can learn how to stay in the present, which in turn improves emotional control and stress,” she said.
She also recommended teaching children mindfulness techniques to help them reduce stress and increase mental clarity for managing problems better. Mindfulness refers to being attentive to our personal experiences, including our thoughts and feelings in that moment.
“In addition, being in the moment may help foster better competence by improving emotional and situational awareness, which promotes growth,” she said.
Spending time away from devices will also give children the opportunity to engage in imaginative activities such as drawing and storytelling, which are important for emotional regulation, Dees said.
Key Developmental Stages Affected by Early Cellphone Access
Ernesto Lira de la Rosa, a licensed clinical psychologist and media adviser for Hope for Depression Research Foundation, told The Epoch Times that children’s development is divided into several key stages, and early access to cellphones and social media can influence each of these stages in different ways.Early Childhood (0 to 5)
During this phase, children build foundational skills in communication, emotional regulation, and social interaction, Lira de la Rosa said. He added that if children are exposed to excessive screen time, “they may experience delays in language development, difficulties with attention, and reduced engagement in imaginative play, which is critical for early cognitive and emotional growth.”Middle Childhood (6 to 12)
Lira de la Rosa said middle childhood is characterized by growing independence, cognitive development, and social skills, and children begin to form stronger peer relationships and a sense of self. “Cellphone and social media use at this stage can affect how children build friendships, with potential impacts on their ability to develop healthy, in-person social skills,” he said.Adolescence (13 to 18)
Adolescence is a critical period for identity formation, emotional regulation, and the development of executive functioning, according to Lira de la Rosa. He explained that access to cellphones and social media can intensify social comparisons and increase exposure to curated or unrealistic portrayals of life, which can negatively affect body image and self-worth. He also said that “overuse of cellphones can also disrupt sleep patterns, which are essential for the mental and physical development taking place during adolescence.”Set Cellphone Use Guidelines for Children
Feuer emphasized the importance of ensuring that household rules and agreements regarding cellphone use are in place and that those guidelines apply to the whole family, including parents.“We have to have guidelines, we have to have rules,” Feuer said. “It’s much better to start it early on and gradually have kids gain more autonomy as they learn to navigate and learn to use technology in a way that’s helpful to them.”
She recommended that parents help their children to understand and be more conscious about their cellphone use. Feuer suggested asking children questions such as, “How do you feel afterward?“ ”How do you waste your time?“ ”How much time are you spending on this that you wish you had time for other things in your day?”
Feuer recounted her experience with her child regarding the amount of time he spent on his phone. She asked him to simply look at the amount of time he spent on TikTok, “and two days later, he deleted TikTok from his phone,” she said.
Feuer addressed the importance of being a role model for our children when it comes to time spent on devices.
“I know this is more stress on parents, but really, modeling is so important because we do it, too,” she said. “We’re addicted to our devices, we’re distracted, and we’re not connecting with our kids because we ourselves are involved with being on one device or another or getting work done or doing our own thing.”
The best approach to teaching responsible cellphone use is to formulate a “family plan,” Feuer said.
“Everybody has to be in it,” she said. “And I think adolescents especially might respond better when the onus is not just on them and we’re not just having their habits under the microscope.”
Feuer recommended approaching the issue as one where parents and children come together as a family and say: “We need to do better than this. We need to make more time to have family time.”
Another problem that arises with cellphone use from a young age is that the device becomes a way to escape the world when they’re stressed.
Weaning From the Internet
When a child has already been using cellphones excessively, it’s important to take a gradual approach to limiting access, said Jenny Seham, a clinical psychologist at Montefiore Medical Center.Seham told The Epoch Times that abruptly creating cellphone limits for children may lead to anger and outbursts initially as kids reacclimate to managing their emotions, relating to peers, and playing with less technology. “The good news is that, with preparation and parent support, the benefits for child-parent relationships and kids can be seen almost immediately and definitely within just a few days,” she said.
- Spend More Time With Your Child. Less time on cellphones means you should prepare to spend more quality time with your child. This is good for parents, too.
- Create a ‘Coping Kit.’ Plan together, and get to know what your child likes to do. Focus on identifying activities that are pleasurable to them, such as reading, being outdoors, walking the dog, drawing and engaging with other art activities, going out to eat, and spending time with friends. This kit isn’t just about limiting cellphone or internet use, but also about what to do in hard moments in general.
- Validate What You Ask of Your Child. Demonstrate through your own actions that though it’s hard, it’s possible to step away from the “quick fix” of texting, posting, or scrolling on social media.
- Engage in Discussion. Talk with your child about what it’s like to be in social situations without cellphone access, and strategize together. Plan ways they can cope or scripts they can use.
“Frame it in terms of the ‘freedom’ to enjoy the world around them in the moment. They can invite others into cellphone freedom by planning phone-free activities together,” she said.
