By Rhonda Geraci
Unmonitored screen time may happen despite parents’ best efforts to monitor their children.
Smartphones, iPads, other smart devices, and social media apps were developed based on what Behavior Economist Nir Eyal called the Hook Model in his 2014 book Hooked, How to Build Habit-Forming Products. As the name implies, this model entices engagement and embeds a feedback and reward loop that can keep the user hooked all day and night.
In a 2020 research study, Birgitta Dresp Langley found the negative impact of digital devices on children’s health, the obesity epidemic, and potential metabolic changes in newborns and toddlers due to screen time overexposure. The American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines recommend no screen time for children under two. A CBS 60 Minutes episode featured a landmark 2018 National Institute on Health study on the impact of screentime on brain development in children. It also featured psychologist and bestselling author Dr. Lisa D’amour, who explained that screentime guidelines for children should protect sleep and focus.
Dr. D’amour shared that elementary children need 11 hours of sleep, and teens need 9-10 hours.
According to a study published by JAMA Pediatrics, electronic devices in the sleep environment can negatively impact quality sleep and cause daytime sleepiness.
Children aren’t the only ones getting caught up in the Hook Model. Adults get hooked as well. Think about how many times you scroll or look at your phone daily. However, children and adults with neurological challenges like ADHD or Autism Spectrum Disorder are especially vulnerable to the reward system that the Hook Model devices create. As with neurally typical children, it negatively impacts sleep and connection with others, but can also delay social, cognitive, and behavioral development.
A parent and social psychologist, Jonathan Haidt, noticed the impact of unmonitored digital technology on children’s sleep, health, and mental well-being. He began compiling data from researchers and learning from early child advocates of tether-free play like Free Range Kids founder Lenore Skenezy. In 2024, Haidt wrote Anxious Generation and co-founded the Let Grow Foundation with Skenezy and Boston Professor Peter Gray, author of Free to Learn, to foster more unmonitored play that unplugs youth from Hook Model devices.
A first-line tip towards screentime management is to read the links highlighted in this blog and educate yourself on how to collaborate with your child to set age-appropriate screen time rules. For example, empower your child to learn and experience how removing all devices from the bedroom at least two hours before bed can foster a good night’s sleep. Also, consider using safer tech for your kids, whether neurotypical or not, and creating opportunities for more outdoor play, minimally or unmonitored, based on the level of need to foster curiosity, exploration, and connection that boosts their cognitive and behavioral development. It’s also important to share the information with your neighbors and community to facilitate collective actions like phone-free schools and increased pathways to more unmonitored or minimally monitored outdoor playgrounds, and promote and model device-free sleep environments, so everyone gets the sleep they need to learn, grow, and thrive.