Psychologist’s No. 1 non-negotiable parenting rule for happier, healthier kids: It’s ‘very straightforward and costs nothing’
By Tom Huddleston Jr. for CNBC
A lot of parents struggle with the idea of giving their kids access to smartphones or other connected devices. How old should they be when they get their first phone or tablet? What parental controls, if any, should you use?
No matter what you decide, you need to follow one “imperative” rule to help your kids grow up to be happy, successful adults, says psychologist Jean Twenge: “No electronic devices in the bedroom overnight.”
“That’s just a situation where there’s, kind of, no argument: ‘You do not need that phone in your bedroom when you are supposed to be sleeping. Period. End of story. Mic drop. We’re done,’” says Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University whose latest book, “10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World,” published on September 2.
Twenge has spent much of the past decade warning parents about the risks of giving young adolescents unlimited access to smartphones and social media. She’s cited research connecting their usage to higher rates of mental health issues in teens, including anxiety and depression.
Some other parenting and medical experts have issued similar warnings: In 2023, then-U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory warning that the risks of social media and connected devices have helped create “a national youth mental health crisis,” for example.
In her book, Twenge advocates for parents to wait as long as possible before handing over smartphones to their kids, or allowing them on social media platforms. She recommends keeping kids from joining social media until they’re 16 or older, and from having full access to their own smartphone until they have a driver’s license and are expected to “get around independently.”
But banning devices from kids’ rooms overnight is her No. 1 rule because of its potential to improve their sleep habits, she says. Doing so is “absolutely crucial for both physical and mental health,” she notes in her book.
“If you have the bandwidth to fully follow only one rule in this book, make it this one,” writes Twenge. “No devices in the bedroom overnight is very straightforward and costs nothing.”
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