--- title: Is Your Kid Hooked on Smartphones? 5 Tips for Parents description: Excessive smartphone use may be contributing to the recent surge in adolescent depression and suicide. Here's how to protect your kids canonical: https://time.com/4979362/kids-smartphones-rules-parents-tips/ author: Markham Heid article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-12T15:52:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T11:18:44.059Z article:section: Health og:title: Is Your Kid Hooked on Smartphones? 5 Tips for Parents og:description: Experts say it's important to set limits on kids' phone use og:url: https://time.com/4979362/kids-smartphones-rules-parents-tips/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1785ad5cdb6bfc57/6988e1a4929fadf0e6bee0e7/phone-rubberbands.jpg?branch=production&width=707&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 707 og:image:height: 398 og:image:alt: phone rubberbands og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Is Your Kid Hooked on Smartphones? 5 Tips for Parents twitter:description: Experts say it's important to set limits on kids' phone use twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1785ad5cdb6bfc57/6988e1a4929fadf0e6bee0e7/phone-rubberbands.jpg?branch=production&width=707&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Is Your Kid Hooked on Smartphones? 5 Tips for Parents > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=71cec530-3338-486a-ab05-50ca8acec401&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Markham Heid](https://time.com/author/markham-heid/) ## Markham Heid Markham Heid is a contributor at TIME. He is the author of The Habit Trap, due out in early 2027. Oct 12, 2017 3:52 PM UTC  Getty Images by [Markham Heid](https://time.com/author/markham-heid/) ## Markham Heid Markham Heid is a contributor at TIME. He is the author of The Habit Trap, due out in early 2027. Oct 12, 2017 3:52 PM UTC There is growing concern among parents, educators and mental health experts that excessive smartphone use may be [contributing to the recent surge in adolescent depression and suicide](http://time.com/4974863/kids-smartphones-depression/). But what qualifies as “excessive”? At this point, no one’s sure. Specific, evidence-based guidelines take time to determine—years, and sometimes decades. And the pace at which kids have incorporated mobile devices into their lives has left researchers in the dust. Still, even at this early stage, some scientists and public health officials are offering advice. Here are five tips from those who have studied kids and technology: **Keep devices out of kids’ bedrooms.** There is already strong data linking bedroom screen time with a variety of risks—particularly sleep loss, says David Hill, director of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Council on Communication and Media. Even among adults, before-bed media use is associated with sleep loss and insomnia. And kids need more sleep than grownups. Hill acknowledges that taking away a child’s phone at bedtime can be a battle, but it’s worth the fight. **Set up online firewalls and data cutoffs.** It’s unrealistic to expect young people to stay away from illicit or shocking content, or to moderate their own social media use, says Frances Jensen, chair of neurology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of [_The Teenage Brain_](https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062067869/the-teenage-brain). A young person’s brain is wired for exploration and, to some extent, thrill-seeking—not moderation and restraint. Most devices and Internet providers offer parenting tools that restrict access to illicit content and curb data use, and there are apps that do so as well. Take advantage of them. **Create a device contract.** “This is something you create with your child that details rules around their device use,” says Yalda Uhls, an assistant adjunct professor at UCLA and author of [_Media Moms and Digital Dads_](http://www.yaldatuhls.com/2015/03/media-moms-and-digital-dads/). These rules could include no smartphones at the dinner table, or no more than an hour of social media use after school. If a child violates the rules, he or she should lose the phone for a period of time. (How long is up to the parent.) The AAP offers an informative [Family Media Plan](https://www.healthychildren.org/English/media/Pages/default.aspx) to help parents get started crafting household rules and restrictions. **Model healthy device behaviors.** Just as kids struggle to stay off their phones, so do parents. “We’re all, even adults, drawn to devices,” says UPenn’s Jensen. And if you’re a phone junkie yourself, you can’t expect your kids to be any different, she says. Apart from putting your own phone away while driving, or during meal times, it’s important to recognize that your kids see what you put online. If you’re criticizing another parent on Facebook, or slamming someone’s political beliefs on Twitter, your kids will follow suit. **Consider old-school flip phones for your kids**, or a smartphone without a data plan (and therefore no Internet access). This may seem like overkill for some parents—especially those of older teens. But unconnected phones still allow teens to call or text with parents and friends, says Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University and author of [_iGen_](http://www.jeantwenge.com/igen-book-by-dr-jean-twenge/). And kids can access social media or videos from home computers and tablets during their free time. But when they’re out in the world—hanging out with friends, playing sports, or just living their lives—they won’t be tempted with all-the-time access to screen-based distractions. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4979362/kids-smartphones-rules-parents-tips/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4979362/kids-smartphones-rules-parents-tips/"},"headline":"Is Your Kid Hooked on Smartphones? 5 Tips for Parents","datePublished":"2017-10-12T15:52:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T11:18:44.059Z","description":"Experts say it's important to set limits on kids' phone use","url":"https://time.com/4979362/kids-smartphones-rules-parents-tips/","keywords":["Parenting","healthytime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1785ad5cdb6bfc57/6988e1a4929fadf0e6bee0e7/phone-rubberbands.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Markham Heid","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/markham-heid/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1785ad5cdb6bfc57/6988e1a4929fadf0e6bee0e7/phone-rubberbands.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"phone rubberbands","caption":"phone rubberbands","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4979362/kids-smartphones-rules-parents-tips/","name":"Is Your Kid Hooked on Smartphones? 5 Tips for Parents"}}]}] ```