Tween & Teen (11+)

35 US states and Washington D.C. have now signed laws or policies restricting student phone use in K-12 classrooms. The 2024-2025 school year was the first with most of those laws in effect. The early data is mixed, surprising, and clearer than anyone expected.

The research on smartphones and adolescent mental health has moved from "possibly linked" to "robustly established" in the last five years. Here is what Jonathan Haidt and the wider evidence actually show, what is rewiring your tween's brain, and the four norms that are reversing the pattern.