What Jonathan Haidt has said about Screen time rules for families

Haidt and his group recommend no social media until age 16.

“So that's why my group says, we say very clearly in the book, no social media till 16”

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Haidt advises approaching a struggling young man with no moral judgment and enlisting his own desire to change rather than imposing total abstinence.

“it's very important that you enlist the man in wanting to change. Is there a vision of yourself in the future that you'd like to see, or are you happy with the way things are now?”

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Haidt recommends restricting devices in place and time rather than removing them outright, starting with sleep and a 10 p.m. shutoff.

“let's just get your sleep in order. How about, could we just do like everything gets shut off at 10 o'clock? Try to put some structures in space and time”

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Haidt says apps expand to fill every available moment, so parents can impose limits regardless of how addicted a child already is.

“these apps, they expand like a gas to fill every available moment. That's how we get to five hours a day of social media use for kids”

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Haidt's household rules are computers and TVs in common spaces with no screens ever in bedrooms, and long-form stories rather than short-form content.

“you can have a computer in a common space. You can have a TV in a common space. And then you just simply have a rule, no screens in the bedroom ever”

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Haidt says the worst online harms, including porn addiction and sexual predation, happen overnight, so devices must leave the bedroom.

“the rule has to be all devices out of the bedroom by 10 o'clock or something or other, because that's where the worst stuff happens is overnight”

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