Setting Screen Time Rules That Actually Work, with Jean Twenge

Summary

Podcast Summary

Parenting in the Screen Age – The Screenagers Podcast

Episode: Setting Screen Time Rules That Actually Work, with Jean Twenge
Host: Delaney Ruston, MD
Guest: Jean Twenge, PhD, Professor of Psychology, San Diego State University
Date: December 29, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Delaney Ruston interviews Jean Twenge about practical strategies for setting and enforcing effective screen time rules with kids and teens. Drawing from Twenge’s new book, "10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High Tech World," and her experience both as a psychologist and parent of three, the discussion covers data-backed recommendations, the importance of sleep, how to use parental controls, and fostering healthy technology habits. The conversation is approachable, pragmatic, and peppered with anecdotes from both speakers’ parenting journeys.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Most Important Rule: No Devices in the Bedroom Overnight

[02:06]

• Jean Twenge’s number one rule is no electronic devices in the bedroom overnight.
  • Strong research shows that even powered-off devices in bedrooms can disturb sleep.
  • "The research is so clear on this that having devices in the bedroom interferes with sleep. Even if they're off..." – Jean Twenge [02:09]
  • Six out of ten 11–17-year-olds use their phones between midnight and 5am on school nights (Common Sense Media).

2. The Data on Sleep Deprivation and Devices

[03:12]

• Sleep deprivation among teens began to spike around 2012, coinciding with widespread smartphone and social media use.
  • Monitoring the Future and the CDC’s Youth Risk Survey both identify this trend.
  • “It's not a coincidence in my view.” – Jean Twenge [03:23]

3. Devices to Remove – It’s Not Just Phones

[04:03]

• TVs, gaming consoles, iPads, smartwatches—all should be out of bedrooms.
• This guidance predates smartphones: pediatricians in the 1980s-90s already recommended no TVs in kids' rooms.
• Devices should shut down before bedtime, not just after lights out.

4. Practical Methods for Enforcing Device Curfews

[05:10]

• Options:

  • Devices stored in parent’s room
  • All devices left on the kitchen counter
  • Use of lockboxes (e.g., KSafe with timers; combination or key-based models)

• Stories of using lockboxes for Girl Scout cookies and devices

  • “Massive sibling fights have broken out in my house over, you ate my Girl Scout cookies... So we have a bunch of the lockboxes...” – Jean Twenge [06:10]

• Level of enforcement may depend on child’s past habits or sneakiness.

5. Parental Controls: Built-in vs. Third-party

[07:50]

• Choices:
  1. Built-in device controls (e.g., Apple Screen Time)
  2. Third-party software (e.g., Custodio)
• Built-in controls are often not comprehensive or user-friendly.
  • "They're very hard. ...You Google it. And then it's still hard." – Jean Twenge [08:45]
• Third-party parental controls are more effective, though not perfect, and usually cost ~$50–$60/year.
  • "I have reluctantly concluded that's the best solution." – Jean Twenge [09:31]

Notable Quirk with Parental Controls

[10:56]

• Custodio failed to block Snapchat by default, but daily activity reports helped catch this.
  • “For some bizarre reason Custodio doesn't include Snapchat in their list of social media...but the app alerted me.” – Jean Twenge [11:33]
• Time limits may not work perfectly; sometimes daily reports show excess use, possibly due to technical issues.

6. The “You Can’t Unsee Things” Effect

[14:08]

• Exposure to disturbing content via images or videos can’t be undone.
  • “There's a big difference between hearing about something or reading about something and seeing it...and then you can't unsee it.” – Jean Twenge [14:10]
• Social media feeds for kids can be much more disturbing compared to adult feeds.
• YouTube and YouTube Shorts are mentioned as particularly problematic, not just mainstream social apps.

7. Sleep, Busy Kids, and Excuses

[16:09]

• Paradoxically, teens involved in sports or other full activities tend to get more sleep.
  • Devices—not academics or activities—usually “steal” sleep.
• Average teen does less than an hour of homework a day. Occasional late nights are expected, but routine loss of sleep is not justified.

8. Consequences and Habits

[18:04]

• If kids don’t turn in devices at agreed time, deny access for a few days.
• Twenge advocates against kids having their own tablets at all:
  • "There really isn't a compelling [argument] for the tablet." – Jean Twenge [18:47]

9. Twenge’s Own Family Rules

[19:20]

• First phone: Basic phone only (no browser, no social media, no AI chatbots).
  • Hold off on smartphones until the child gets a driver’s license.
  • “You get your first smartphone when you get your driver’s license.” – Jean Twenge [20:40]
• Real-life:
  • Her oldest had a flip phone until 16.5.
  • Her younger kids’ phone timing depended on logistics (e.g. distance to bus stop).
  • No own tablets.

10. Delaying Social Media

[21:35]

• Twenge recommends holding off on social media until at least age 16.

11. Grace, Second Chances, and Changing Norms

[21:35, 22:21, 23:10]

• Emphasis on giving grace to parents who feel late to the game:
  • Mistakes are common, and there’s always a chance to course-correct.
  • “You know, you might have one big fight, but then you save a big fight a hundred times over going forward...” – Jean Twenge [22:58]
• Importance of organizing as a parent community to shift social norms.
  • "Change the social norms. So it’s not normal for middle school students to have iPhones without parental controls.” – Jean Twenge [23:47]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "If you can follow only one rule, it should be no electronic devices in the bedroom overnight." – Jean Twenge [02:07]

• “Six out of 10, 11 to 17-year-olds... were using their phones between midnight and 5am on school nights.” – Jean Twenge [02:38]

• “Devices are stealing sleep, not homework or sports.” – Jean Twenge [16:47]

• “You can put devices in those lockboxes overnight... There's also really fancy ones ... you can put a timer on it.” – Jean Twenge [06:52]

• “The app alerted me... I’m like, wait a second, that's the Snapchat icon. What's going on there?” – Jean Twenge [11:31]

• “There’s a big difference between hearing about something or reading about something and seeing it... and then you can’t unsee it.” – Jean Twenge [14:09]

• “You get your first smartphone when you get your driver's license.” – Jean Twenge [20:40]

• “You might have one big fight, but then you save a big fight a hundred times over going forward..." – Jean Twenge [22:58]

• “Change the social norms. So it’s not normal for middle school students to have iPhones without parental controls.” – Jean Twenge [23:47]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:06] – No devices in bedroom, research on sleep
• [03:12] – Sleep loss spike post-2012, data sources
• [05:10] – How to physically secure devices (lockboxes, kitchen counter)
• [07:50] – Parental controls: built-in vs third-party
• [10:56] – Report on third-party app glitches
• [14:08] – Disturbing online content & "can't unsee" things
• [16:09] – Busy kids, sports, and sleep
• [18:04] – Setting consequences for breaking rules
• [19:20] – Twenge's own family phone/device rules
• [21:35] – Delaying social media, giving parents grace
• [23:10] – Community and shifting norms

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Takeaways for Parents

• Start with the bedroom rule: Make bedrooms tech-free overnight, as this is foundational to better sleep and less conflict.
• Attack the problem together: Parental controls aren't perfect—combine device settings, third-party apps, and physical barriers.
• Delay major steps: Wait on smartphones and social media. If you started early, it’s not too late to re-evaluate and change.
• Community matters: Coordinate with other parents for greater impact and easier norm-setting.
• Mistakes are normal: There’s grace and room to correct course, even if you feel behind.

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This episode offers clear, research-based, and actionable advice—grounded in both social science and daily parenting realities—for families navigating screens in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

Transcript

[A]

Hello, I'm Delania Rustin, primary care physician and creator with Lisa of the four Screenagers movies. And this is Parenting in the Screen Age, a show about discovering the best ways to help our youth and ourselves navigate our rapidly changing digital world. I'm excited to have on today's show Jean Twenge. Jean is a professor of psychology at San Diego State University and a leading researcher on generational differences. And in recent years, she's had a particular focus on teens, screen time, and mental health. She's the author of several influential books, including Igen, which examines how growing up with smartphones and social media has shaped today's young people. She's been on the podcast before, where we focus on myths and realities of social media and mental health. Today, Jean and I are discussing her new book, 10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High Tech World. We dive into many practical points around parenting and technology. We talk about setting and enforcing tech rules, using parental controls, where technology should and shouldn't live in the home, and when to introduce specific devices into young people's lives. Jean also shares the rules she's used with her own three daughters. Let's get started.

[B]

Jean, it's wonderful to have you back on the show.

[C]

Thanks for having me back.

[B]

We're going to be talking today about your new book that's everywhere. It's been great. It's called 10 rules for raising Kids in a High Tech World. And it's just been wonderful to see the reception it's getting because it really is so concrete with advice for parents.

[C]

That was the goal. Having done research in this world for a while and having three teenage kids, it was kind of the collision of those two worlds. Just trying to write something that will help parents out as they navigate these really tough issues. Yes.

[B]

Well, I want to start. I'm not going to give away all 10 rules. People can look at the book, but I want to start with what is considered your number one rule.

[C]

Yeah. So what I write in the book is, okay, parents, if you can follow only one rule, it should be no electronic devices in the bedroom overnight. The research is so clear on this that having devices in the bedroom interferes with sleep. Even if they're off, there's several studies showing that they still interfere with sleep. So get them physically out of the bedroom. But it's worse than that. Six out of 1011 to 17 year olds, according to Common Sense Media, when they tracked their phones, were using their phones between midnight and 5am on school nights. So if that phone is not completely out of the bedroom. There's a good chance that your kids on Instagram at 2am or texting their friends late at night and not getting the sleep that they need.

[B]

Yeah. Let's talk a little bit more of the data because we know that there's an epidemic of teens loss of sleep. The Child Health study shows that in elementary school this is also a problem,

[C]

we know for teenagers. There's two studies that have tracked that for teenagers. Yes, Monitoring the Future and the Youth Risk Survey administered by the cdc. Both show sleep deprivation among teens starting to spike around 2012 just in a smartphone and social media became popular. So not a coincidence in my view.

[B]

Not at all. In fact, just a couple months ago we launched our Screen Free Sleep campaign which is exactly advocating what you are out there speaking about. Our campaign is really focused on parents of elementary and middle school age kids. We know that it's really hard to reverse in the teenagers, but it's never too late. We believe in that. But we're really trying to start downstream. And I definitely appreciate you like us are saying get Alexa out, get the smartwatches out, iPads. Can you speak a little bit to that?

[C]

Yeah, absolutely. So you know, we think about it just being the phone, but of course there's other devices too. And I mean the really interesting thing is we've known this for decades, we've known this even before the smartphone is on the scene that pediatricians were saying in the 80s and 90s, never have a TV set in your kids bedrooms. The same, same reasoning. So yeah, don't have a TV set, don't have a gaming console in there. Get the iPad out, get the smartwatch out, get the phone out, get the laptop out. So physically get them out of the bedroom and also use parental controls so they shut down. So that's particularly for the age group that you're talking about. Absolutely. Have them shut down. Whether that's the device controls or the third party controls, whatever you need to do, do both. Get them physically out of the bedroom and have them shut down at bedtime or even better half an hour or an hour before bedtime because hopefully we'll get to this. It's not just after lights out, it's looking at these devices right before bed. That's also a huge problem for sleep.

[B]

Very much about the activation of what they're doing. Either emotionally activated, kind of revved up. So we really advocate in parents room or in a lockbox of some sort of closed place. Can you speak about your experience with a lockbox?

[C]

Sure. I go through this in the book of just like all the possible ways that you can accomplish this. So yeah, some parents have told me I put it in my room overnight and that can work. But if you don't, if you sleep later than your kids or go to bed earlier and they're doing homework and it's a laptop, you can run into some difficulties. But if that works for you, that's awesome. You can put it down downstairs. So that's what we do in my house. They all go on the kitchen counter. But it depends on how sneaky your kids are because especially if they've had the phone overnight or they're very used to having completely free reign, then you may need to take it another step further, which is getting a lockbox. So there's a couple options on these. We've used lockboxes in my house for years, mostly for Girl Scout cookies and other types of desserts. They have prevented fights. Massive sibling fights have broken out in my house over, you ate my Girl Scout cookies or you took my. Whatever special thing I was saving. So we have a bunch of the lock boxes that have a, they're a three digit combination. So for a while I, I had one that had, that had a key and I hid the key and then the kids found the key and I was like, okay, you know, we're done with the keys or you lose the key. That's also a possibility that you have this box or you can't unlock. So. And you could forget the combination too. So you, you do have to, you know, make sure you have, um. But you can get multiple lockboxes. I actually have one in this freezer too, you know, for like ice cream treats. That again, there have been fights over or that I want and then they disappear all out of the box in one day. Sorry, I'm getting sidetracked. But you get the point. And these are useful for devices too. If you need it for that. You can put devices in those lockboxes overnight with that combination. Your kids don't know. There's also really fancy ones. There's one called a ksafe where you can put a timer on it so you can lock it there and then it will unlock at a certain time. So that's useful for this idea too because then you know when your kid's going to leave for school and then it can unlock when they need to leave for school and then you don't even have to worry about the combination.

[B]

Yeah, I think what you've done differently is to say both to have the devices out of the bedroom and to put on parental controls. Can you speak about the two different kinds of.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And what your favorite of the two, your preference?

[C]

Yeah. So there are controls. Let's just take phones for the moment. But the same basic things apply to laptops and other devices. You have two choices or you could use both. There are controls built into the device itself so you can go into the device itself and set certain things up. So you can set for example that the phone is going to shut down at a certain time at night. You can set that you need the parents code for, for app downloads. And I love that one because then you know, when you finally give your kid the smartphone, then they don't have carte blanche. It can be okay, any app that you want to download, we'll start you out with the ones that we know you need and that you know, we don't have a problem with anything else you want to download. It's going to be a conversation rather than the kid unilaterally downloading it and you don't even know that they have it. So these are the types of things that you can do. So you can use those device based controls but they are often hard to use.

[B]

Very hard.

[C]

They're very. Yeah, I know. And it's one of those things you're like oh, how, how hard can it be? It's hard and it, and it's time consuming and, and I don't know, these, these are kind of things that people will be glib about. They'll be like, well why don't you just Google it? Of course you Google it. And then it's still hard. And they change and they change where they appear in the settings. They're complicated and they're not as comprehensive as most parents would like to.

[B]

Yeah, I want to, I want to click on that because I hadn't really appreciated that point. They're not as comprehensive.

[C]

You can list certain websites but then again that's time consuming. You have to go in and then you know, maybe there's a new one that comes up or you know, you don't know like what? Because all this stuff again changes all the time there. It's harder to block what you want blocked. I found this out in setting up my kids laptops because they still have basic phones. Even my 16 year old still has a basic phone because she doesn't have her driver's license yet. So they don't have full blown smartphones. So on the laptop I set them up and tried to put in the Apple based Controls and it was very complicated. I screwed up immediately because I set it up with them having the administrator account and then I realized, well, that's not going to work because then I can't put their parent code on it. So I had to start all over again and then setting up controls, just quickly realizing it was not easy and that it was not comprehensive. So I went and bought third party parental control software. So I have reluctantly concluded that that's the best solution. And it's very reluctant because you do have to pay money for it. And I just think that's egregious that we should have better regulation and that device control should be better and you shouldn't have to pay for it. But fortunately it's not that much, 50, $60 a year, so cheaper than a streaming service. And it's much more comprehensive and it's much easier to use. I am not going to claim that it's 100% effective. It has some glitches to it, which I ran into, but it is much more comprehensive and easier to use than the device controls. And I'm very, very glad that I installed that on my kids laptops.

[B]

Which one did you install?

[C]

I ended up installing Custodio and I tried a bunch of others and there's a bunch I couldn't get to work. There's a bunch that will not work on Mac laptops at all. And so it works fairly well. We've had a couple of glitches. My kids ended up on Snapchat because from some bizarre reason Custodio doesn't include Snapchat in their list of social media. Because what I loved about the third party app is that you can just check social media. All blocked. But for some reason they didn't put Snapchat in there.

[B]

Oh, interesting.

[C]

Which is bizarre. And so, but the app alerted me to that. It came up in, you know, the daily report, which usually has not nothing interesting in it. And then one day I'm like, wait a second, that's the snap. That's the little Snapchat icon. What's going on there? So then I specifically blocked it. And then, then that, that took care of it. I mean, so it was there. It just, you know, it didn't work as perfectly as I'd like. And the other piece is I put time limits on it. So they're not on it all the time, especially on the weekends because they do their homework on it. Right. So this is a whole other discussion, right? This is the dilemma that parents are in, right? Yeah. Especially with middle and high school students, it's really tough. And the daily report routinely has their number of hours online exceeding that time limit. And I don't know if there's a glitch in it where if they just leave it open, if it is still clicking along even though they can't use it, I don't know what the deal is. And I've contacted the help center and they haven't been helpful. So that's been the biggest glitch.

[B]

Are you saying that it's the total time on the computer or on specific, like social media? On their laptop?

[C]

On the. On the computer overall. So a total time. So particularly on the weekends, you know, if they had complete free for all access to the laptop, I'm not sure if they would do anything else. Yeah. So I limit them on the weekends to. Usually it's two hours, but a lot of times I'll get that daily report and then it will say three hours or four hours. And I don't know if it actually shut down. I don't know if the time limits are working. Yeah.

[D]

Before we dive back in, I wanted to let you know about our four screenagers documentaries, which focus on helping kids and teens navigate the challenges of this digital age. We created these films to be screened in schools and at community events. Over 20,000 hosts have shown them thus far. Along with the movies, we provide discussion guides, promotional materials, and other tools so that you can easily organize a truly impactful event for your community. And if your school wants to use the movies in the classroom, we have options for that too, along with a full curriculum of lesson plans designed for various grade levels. To learn more about the movies or inquire about becoming a host, visit screenagersmovie.com

[A]

there's a link in the show notes.

[D]

Now back to the show.

[B]

What you've said is really important about you can't unsee things. Can you speak to that?

[C]

Yeah. My kids and I talk about this a lot. That there's a big difference between hearing about something or reading about something and seeing it, you know, in an image or in a video or a TV show. And then you can't unsee it. And I always try to think about the human brain and how it evolved. And we evolved to pay attention to things that are disturbing, to things that are unusual, even the things that are violent, to things that are sexual, because those are things that, you know, we've been primed to pay attention to. Yeah. And that is heightened among adolescents and tweens because they are curious about these things. And so, yeah, you see that and you can't unsee it. So it's just really shocking how much disturbing material is out there on social media in particular. And I think that's another thing that parents don't fully realize, and I definitely didn't until I really started digging into the research behind this book was just how much stuff out there is disturbing. And even if you have social media yourself, your feed doesn't look like your kids.

[B]

Absolutely. You and I both agree that it's not even the social media that we're talking about. The apps, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, it's the YouTube shorts. It's what's going on on YouTube. So our latest film, the elementary school age edition of Screenagers, we do address YouTube and not just give free rein on YouTube. Getting back to sleep for a moment, kids will say, I need to stay up because I gotta get homework done. You know, I'm so busy. I have my sports, I have all these things. And I really appreciate the research around this and kids having full lives. What you found.

[C]

Yeah. So kids who are really busy are actually more likely to get enough sleep. You wouldn't think that, but that's what it shows in those national surveys of teens. So sports in particular, those kids are getting enough sleep probably because they know it's important for their sports performance and they're more tired. Yeah, it's very often these devices that are stealing sleep, not homework or sports. And look, there are some teenagers with really, really packed schedules. And so, yes, you may have to push BEDT a little bit, but this idea that, you know, all teens can't get to bed on time for the vast majority of teens, that's just not the case. Yeah. And the stuff about homework, the average teen does less than an hour of homework a day.

[B]

That's gonna. It's gonna vary a lot.

[C]

You also have to separate the routine from the occasional.

[B]

Yes, absolutely.

[C]

Every once in a while. Yeah. You know, they're going to need to stay up late and do homework. But if that's happening every single night, then you have to reconsider what classes they're taking, how they're organizing their time, all of that stuff.

[B]

And again, for us, really focusing on elementary and middle having that set time and then really working with the kids to understand executive function planning, getting the work done, and then that habit of going to bed at a regular time and getting the homework done and keeping devices out of the bedroom. Our goal is that then that becomes the norm into the high school years. For many of us like you and I and other parents who've been able

[C]

to do this and good habits, good habits that we hope they'll take with them into young adulthood. Yeah.

[B]

So really setting that bedtime with them, having them have some say in that and then from there saying that the homework needs to be done might be finals. That might change depending on the young person.

[C]

Right.

[B]

You are specific in the book about some consequences you've given. If you guys have agreed on turning in the phone or let's say iPad at. At 8:30 they're supposed to give over the iPad. What might be a consequence if they don't do that?

[C]

You don't get to use the iPad for a few days. Could easily be it. Yeah. And again, you know, you can run into this if the. For the homework issue. Yeah. I'm actually not a fan of tablets period. So I was thinking about this and you can make the argument of needing a laptop to do homework, you can make the argument of needing the phone to be able to contact parents or you know, especially for a kid who has a driver's license, you know, being able to call AAA and get help. But what's the argument for the tablet? There really isn't a compelling one. Yeah. You know, every once in a while if they need a tablet for some reason, they can borrow yours. But that's one of the things I say in the book that I think is a good general rule of don't give your kid their own tablet. Yeah, foreign.

[B]

Let's end by having you say what your rules have been with your three daughters.

[C]

First phones should be basic phones. Give your kid a phone designed for kids instead of handing them a smartphone at the age of 11 and put off that full blown smartphone until later. Put it off until they get their driver's license. The phones designed for kids are just Android phones. They look like any other phone. So then it doesn't stand out. That's one of, that's one of the advantages. And it's a lot easier to text on them. So then your kids can text their friends. But there's no social media. Most of them have no Internet browser. And there's no AI boyfriends or girlfriends, AI companions, because that's the other thing. Now you know, if you can hand your kid a smartphone and they can download anything they want, there's nothing to stop a 12 year old from downloading AI sexy chat or AI girlfriend and having their first quote, romantic relationship be with a bot.

[B]

So what age did you allow your daughters to have? Just A basic phone.

[C]

Well, that was, that varied. That varied a lot among the three kids. So my oldest had a flip phone until she was 16 and a half. My middle one got one. So we moved when she was in middle school. And in our previous house, the bus stop was really close and if the bus didn't come, she could easily walk home here. The bus stop for the middle school is a mile away. So we got her a phone at that point, a basic phone.

[B]

What did you tell them at what age they would get a smartphone?

[C]

So the rule in our house, and this is what I have in the book to you, is you get your first smartphone when you get your driver's license. So in most states it's going to be 16. So my middle one is 16, she just turned 16, but she hasn't gotten her driver's license yet, so she still has the kid phone. And she asked me a few months ago, hey, you know, can I get the smartphone when I turn 16 even if I don't have my driver's license yet? And I said no. The rule is with the driver's license. And that's nice because that's a clear line in the sand. It means then really. I mean, the thing is she doesn't really need the smartphone until she starts driving. Some people would argue she doesn't even need it then, but you know, the Maps app is pretty cool and you know, having access to a full blown phone at that point makes some sense to me. She's taking her driver's test in a week or so and if she gets her license then we will go to the Apple Store. If not, then it'll be later.

[B]

I know that you're also a proponent of delaying social media until 16 and. Yeah, and I just want to state to all parents out there who have perhaps given devices, smartphones much earlier, that we are at a time when we're thinking through all of this and there our kids are still going to be okay. And if they're struggling and you're struggling as a parent, this is what this podcast is about, trying to figure out solutions and trying to figure out when extra help is needed. So I just want to give a lot of grace to all parents and educators, everyone with kids and who cares about kids, really a deep understanding that we're in this together. And this is really hard.

[C]

It is. And you know, I hear this from a lot of parents of oh, but you know, I, I, I made mistakes or you can't put the genie back in the bottle. You know what you're going to make mistakes. I made mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. Yep. So you try to correct them and you can put the genie back in the bottle. If you have given an 11 year old a smartphone without any controls on it, take it back and get him a kid's phone or if that's not on the cards, lock that phone down as much as you can with that third party control software.

[B]

You can, you can correct and it might be a fight then, but it saves a lot of fights daily, ongoing.

[C]

That's right. You know, you might have one big fight, but then you save a big fight a hundred times over going forward with you're on social media and you're not supposed to put the phone away at dinner, all of those things.

[B]

And the key is working with other parents. And you're doing that by having this book out there and educating so many people, giving so much advice. I know that for our Screen Free Sleep campaign that people can [e-mail] it's all about pledging and we'd love to see, for example, a whole elementary school class, one of these parents who's kind of an organizer for it to try to get all the parents to pledge. And then there's plenty of other resources there. But you and I both know that when we do this as a community, it can be so much more effective. All the changes that we want to see happen.

[C]

Yeah. Change the social norms. So it's not normal for middle school students to have iPhones without parental controls. Change the social norms. So kids don't have those phones in their bedroom overnight, so they're not getting texts from their friends at 2 in the morning. Yep. That's what we need to do. Come together, you know, agree to get the phones out of the bedroom. Agree to not give your kid a smartphone until they're older.

[B]

Wonderful. Jean, this has been fantastic talking with you and I just can't wait to do this again in the future.

[C]

I thanks so much for having me on.

[E]

What a gift that you tuned into the show today. The screenagers podcast and movement is all about learning together how we can best help our youth of all ages, our communities and ourselves best navigate our rapidly changing digital world. Make sure to follow subscribe to the podcast to get each episode automatically. And the more subscribers, the easier it is for others to find us. And if you give it a like and write a review, even just one sentence, that helps even more. Check out screenagersmovie.com to get resources for each episode and loads of other resources. Learn about our four Screenagers films and find my weekly parenting blog, TechTalkTuesdays. And be sure to use the search bar to find many topics you might be wondering about among hundreds of past vlogs. Finally, I love hearing from you, so email [e-mail] what ideas do you want to hear for future episodes? Today's show was produced by the following people me, your host Delaney Rustin, Lisa Tabb and sound editing was done by Alan Gofinski.