Pod pick: Should we give toddlers phones?

Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation made a big impression on me when I read it last year for a school book club. Haidt made a compelling case for delaying giving kids smartphones—and access to social media—for as long as possible.

A recent podcast episode from "Today, Explained" provided an interesting complement (and sometimes counterpoint) to some of Haidt's arguments. The episode featured an interview with an academic named Andrew Przybylski who has decided to take a gradual approach to introducing his child to technology, including giving his toddler a smartphone. He explained that he and his partner used available tools to restrict what the phone can do, starting with just a family photo gallery before eventually unlocking other functions such as the camera. Przblski studies human behavior and technology at Oxford University and his argument for this approach is that it's best for his daughter to learn to use the smartphone gradually with adult guidance so that she will be better able to navigate technology on her own when she is older.

The second half of the episode included an interview with Dr. Jenny Radesky who has done research on how children use YouTube specifically. She shared that 80% of parents with children between the ages of 2 and 4 allow their children to watch YouTube (the number falls to a whopping 60% for parents with children under the age of 2). Her team has watched thousands of YouTube videos aimed at children and coded them based on their quality. The best content for children includes classics like Sesame Street, with some newer shows like Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and Bluey also rating highly. These higher-quality offerings are slower-paced, incorporate humor into meaningful stories, and portray realistic situations (more mediocre content, like Cocomelon, mostly eschew conflict and friction). On the opposite end of the spectrum, low-quality AI "slop" videos have more recently arrived on the scene and are garnering billions of views.

Radesky offered some interesting comparisons between content children consume on platforms like YouTube and the older media adults might remember consuming when they were kids:

The tech landscape is ever-changing and, although I believe that Haidt's book is still important, I have noticed a shift in the way young people are using their devices in the last few years. Increasingly, they're using their phones less for social media and more for consuming video content (TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube). A fascinating fact emerged this past week in opening statements in Meta's antitrust lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission: only 17% of users' time on Facebook is now spent viewing content from friends (it's a scant 7% for Instagram!). Meta—the original social media company—is now mostly in the business of algorithmically pushing third-party content.

Before phones were banned during the school day, my co-teacher and I tried to take a more pedagogically-minded approach to policing their use. This included a five-minute phone break during our 80-minute block classes. Eventually, this became untenable as many students were unable to resist using their devices outside the break time. This led us to move to a policy of separation: phones went in a caddy in the front of the room for the entirety of class. This strategy proved to be much more effective and smartphone use mostly ceased to be a problem in our classroom. My personal experiments with managing my own use of technology yielded a similar insight: separation is key.

With these experiences in mind, I have skepticism about a gradual release model for technology when it comes to young children. I don't believe that any algorithmic exposure is likely to be healthy for kids. But, as Przybylski and Radesky pointed out, it is possible to use built-in tools on phones (and more comprehensive solutions like the Pinwheel OS) to limit child access. For example, a curated library of YouTube videos can allow kids to access high-quality content on their devices, especially when circumstances call for it (e.g., a long flight or car ride). But it's worth remembering Haidt's other important theme: managing technology use is only part of the equation—providing opportunities for kids to do things away from technology is also essential for their healthy development.