Podcast Summary: "Smartphones Are Rewiring Our Brains—Here’s How Parents Can Say No"

Podcast: American Thought Leaders | The Epoch Times
Air Date: September 12, 2025
Guest: Clare Morell, Ethics and Public Policy Center fellow, author of "The Tech Exit"

Episode Overview

This episode delves into the profound effects of smartphones and social media on children's brain development, mental health, and family dynamics. Host Janya Keller speaks with Clare Morell about her book "The Tech Exit: A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones," exploring practical strategies for parents to create a smartphone-free childhood, the neuroscience behind digital addiction, and how collective action can help families reclaim real-life connections.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Hidden Dangers of Smartphone Culture

• Smartphones as a highly addictive substance: Clare Morell equates their impact to "digital fentanyl," suggesting their effects on the developing brain are more akin to powerful drugs than innocuous treats like sugar.
  • "Looking at the brain science, we really have to treat screens more in the category of a highly addictive drug like digital fentanyl than sugar." — Clare Morell [00:18]
• App culture and societal pressure: The expectation for constant connectivity leads many parents to feel trapped, believing it's “impossible to completely resist” incorporating smartphones into their children's lives.
  • She reminds listeners smartphones are only 18 years old (since 2007), and not an inevitability of childhood. [01:13]

2. The Business Model: Addiction by Design

• Tech companies' incentives: The business model of major tech companies maximizes "users' time, attention, and data" for profit, often at the expense of child safety.
  • "These companies are in a race to the bottom. They're all in a race to get the youngest users. The incentives are not in place for them to put child safety first." — Clare Morell [00:00/15:26]
• Features fueling compulsion: Variable rewards (like infinite scroll, notifications, likes/followers) hijack dopamine systems, making platforms compulsive and leading to habitual checking—even for brief periods.
  • "Addiction scientists explain that part of the reason they're so addictive is there's this uncertainty of rewards...like a slot machine." [09:06]
  • "Now, what I try to explain to parents is social media is recommendation media...the algorithm just supplies an endless stream of constant dopamine hits. It's infinite scroll." [09:06]

3. Parental Controls: False Security

• Myth of effective controls: It's "impossible to effectively lock down every path...where a child could come across pornography or other dangerous content," as even filtered devices leave many backdoors open.
  • "If you're handing a child a smartphone, you're handing them access to pornography." — Clare Morell [12:12]
  • "Most dangerous apps like Snapchat and TikTok...won't allow any third-party controls access to their content." [12:12]
• Arms race between apps: Companies hesitate to build in more restrictions, fearing they’ll lose users to less scrupulous competitors, especially with foreign-owned apps like TikTok. [15:07–16:44]

4. Addiction and Adolescent Development

• Neuroscience findings: Even brief, habitual checking alters brain development—fostering hypersensitivity to social rewards and undermining focus, sleep, and emotional regulation.
  • "They saw divergent brain development over time in children who were just frequent checkers of social media." [21:13]
  • "Just doing a screen detox for 30 days in a lot of cases eliminated the symptoms entirely..." [21:13]
• Replacement of real-world rewards: Virtual interactions produce dopamine but not oxytocin, resulting in "a loneliness epidemic" despite the illusion of connection.
  • "Oxytocin...is only [released] through physical touch or eye contact in real life...we're seeing a loneliness epidemic." — Clare Morell [21:13]
  • "Their brains become used to this artificially high level of dopamine...they actually find like going on a bike ride or reading a book to be...very boring and dull by comparison." [21:13]

5. The Feasibility & Process of Detox

• Detox is possible—and often necessary: Despite initial pushback and withdrawal symptoms, a 30-day digital detox can reset children's and teens' brains and habits, with symptoms mirroring drug withdrawal but subsiding over time.
  • "The first two weeks were terrible...but they hit 30 days and they started to see the benefits in their kids." — Clare Morell [25:58]
  • "Once you get over that hump, you lay this foundation for the long term." [46:05]
• No silver bullet, but collective action helps: Success rates are higher when families "find other families" to opt out collectively.
  • "Every parent that pushes back makes it easier for the next parent." [03:26]
  • "Find other families in your school or your neighborhood or your church community to resist these things together." [03:26]

6. Practical Recommendations (FEAST Framework)

Clare Morell condenses her findings into the FEAST model for sustaining a smartphone-free lifestyle:

• F — Find Other Families: Build community to resist app/social pressures [38:46].
• E — Educate, Explain, Exemplify: Teach kids about the harms and model good behavior.
• A — Adopt Alternatives: Use non-smartphones (call/text, no browser/social/games) or computer-based tools [03:26].
• S — Set Digital Accountability: Transparency for kids’ communications; communal, public screen use [38:46].
• T — Trade for Real-Life Experiences: Redirect time/energy to responsibilities, real-world socialization, independence, jobs, and hobbies [38:46].

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "A smartphone free childhood is possible. Actually, a lot of families have done this...the smartphone is not an inevitable part of childhood." — Clare Morell [00:32/01:13]
• "If you have an app that's under the control of a foreign adversary...we have to be especially on guard because they do not have the interests of America's children in mind at all." — Clare Morell, on TikTok and CCP [16:44]
• "They wouldn't let their own children near it...just speaks to exactly why we should all be considering opting out because of how harmful it is to our kids." — Clare Morell, on tech executives [18:12]
• "We're losing that ability to actually...learn delayed gratification...the device just undermines all of that." — Clare Morell [35:09]
• "No communication channels of a child were private...that expectation of digital accountability was itself the protection." — Clare Morell [38:46]
• "They trade the screens for these real life responsibilities and pursuits for their kids and things that will actually help them progress towards adulthood." — Clare Morell [38:46]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Race to the bottom, child safety neglected: [00:00–00:18], [15:07–16:44]
• Smartphone-free childhood is possible: [00:32–01:13], [03:26]
• The sugar vs. digital fentanyl metaphor: [00:18], [06:18]
• How addictive app design works: [09:06]
• Why parental controls fail: [12:12]
• Social media arms race (esp. TikTok): [15:07–16:44]
• Research on brain development and desensitization: [21:13]
• Detox stories & withdrawal: [25:58], [46:05]
• Impact on adults & parental modeling: [29:56–32:14]
• The FEAST approach: [38:46]
• Biology of connection—oxytocin vs dopamine: [21:13], [42:53], [43:18]
• Building a support community: [49:51]

Resources & Where to Learn More

• Clare Morell’s Substack: clairemorell.substack.com
• Practical Resources & Guide: thetechexit.com (includes discussion guides and screen-free activity ideas)
• Book Mentioned: "Reset Your Child’s Brain" by Dr. Victoria Dunkley
• Support Networks: Smartphone-Free Childhood (chat groups; local WhatsApp chapters) [49:51]

Tone and Style

The conversation is urgent yet hopeful, blending deep concern with practical action steps. Clare Morell is clear, compassionate, and authoritative, focusing on empowerment and collective parental action.

Conclusion

Clare Morell argues persuasively that smartphones and social media are fundamentally incompatible with healthy childhood development. A smartphone-free upbringing is both necessary and achievable, and far from isolating, can open the door to richer, more meaningful family and community life—if parents dare to say “no.”

For anyone questioning the inevitability of screens in their kids’ lives, this episode offers a blueprint for action—grounded in research, buoyed by real-life success stories, and supported by an emerging movement of like-minded families.