Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation says no smartphone before high school and no social media before 16. Pete Etchells's Unlocked came out in the UK within days of it, in March 2024, went through the same kind of studies, and found the evidence for large harms much weaker than the headlines. Both books are on this shelf. A parent deciding about a first phone gets more from reading the pair than from either one.
That split runs through the whole shelf. The authors are pediatricians, psychologists, reading scientists, teachers and reporters, and they argue with each other in print. Where they agree is where to start: phones out of the bedroom at night, more freedom in the real world, and an adult nearby while a kid figures out the tech.
Sonia Livingstone and Alicia Blum-Ross spent time with 73 London families for Parenting for a Digital Future and found that a fight about a screen often stands in for a bigger worry about money, work or the future. It is also why the highest score on this shelf, 94, goes to The Whole-Brain Child, a book about meltdowns. Good Inside (93), on big feelings, and The Gift of Failure (91), on letting a kid fail, score as well as the best phone books.
If your question is about phones and school, Wait Til 8th and tech in schools go deeper on those two decisions. If it is about a kid using ChatGPT, see kids and AI.
