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Mindful tech for the whole family
PRIORITIZE WELL-BEING
Strategies for parents who want to live a tech intentional life.
- Model healthy digital habits:
Establish healthy habits for the adults in your home (no phones in bedrooms, no screens during family time, etc.).
- Set screen time guidelines:
Establish screen time limits based on age and activity (e.g., educational vs. entertainment) and use tools like parental controls and screen-time apps to monitor usage.
- Encourage offline activities:
Promote hobbies that don’t involve screens, such as outdoor play, reading, and family game night. Create tech-free zones or times (e.g., during meals and before bedtime).
- Teach online safety and privacy:
Discuss the importance of protecting personal information and not sharing passwords. Teach your kids to recognize and avoid scams, phishing attempts, and cyberbullying.
- Foster critical thinking about digital content:
Encourage your kids to question and analyze what they see online (via social media, video games, or AI chatbots).
- Communicate openly about digital experiences:
Maintain an open dialogue about your kids online activities, friends, and challenges. Encourage them to come to you with concerns about cyberbullying or uncomfortable online interactions.
- Use technology together as a family:
Show your kids what it looks like when technology brings your family together (family movie night or interactive video game play). Notice the distinction between what happens when families gather around a large screen and when they are in a room together on their personal devices.
RESOURCES FROM OUR PARTNERS AT PA UNPLUGGED
Our partners at PA Unplugged have put together some fantastic educational resources about the issues. Click below to see their full guides on each topic.
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Slow tech your life
If you have a love/hate relationship with your phone, you're not alone! PA Unplugged has put together five great steps to help you return connection and calm to your family by slow tech-ing your life. Spoiler alert: It starts with you. Click through to read about concrete steps you can take to show your kids that the people in the room always matter more than whatever is on the screen.
Read the guide → on Slow Tech Your Life -
Phone-free schools
Our students and teachers deserve distraction-free schools. As long as students are allowed to access their smartphones during the school day, they can never focus entirely on learning. Schools that have enacted bell-to-bell cell phone policies tell us that the entire culture of their school has shifted in a more positive direction. Learn more about the research supporting phone free schools on PA Unplugged's guide.
Read the guide → on Phone-Free Schools -
EdTech
If you have a child attending a traditional school (public, private, or parochial) chances are, they are part of a 1:1 device program from the earliest grades. These programs were designed with the best of intentions, but over time, we are learning that more technology in the classroom is not necessarily better. In many cases, more technology — especially for the youngest learners — leads to less learning. Get up to speed on Ed Tech & 1:1 devices with PA Unplugged's excellent guide.
Read the guide → on EdTech -
AI & your family
Whether you love it or hate it, generative AI is slowly creeping into all of our lives. If you have an AI-enabled device in your house or use AI for work, don't call it by its "name," call it a computer. This simple shift helps clarify that these products are never friends or companions. They are always tools. Read more about AI and your family on PA Unplugged's guide.
Read the guide → on AI & Your Family -
Alternative devices
One of the most important decisions you can make as a parent is when and how you introduce your child to their first internet-connected device/phone/watch. We've never heard a parent say they wish they had introduced a smart phone sooner, but we often hear parents say they wish they had waited. Many families simply don't realize how many alternatives to smart phones are now on the market. So before making any big decisions, take some time to think about what you actually want your child to have access to, and whether an alternative device might be your best choice.
Read the guide → on Alternative Devices
DELAY PERSONAL DEVICES
One of the most important decisions you can make as a parent is deciding when and how to introduce your child to their first internet-connected device (tablet, smartphone, etc.). Every family is different, and there is no golden age when risk is eliminated, but we encourage you to take some time with this decision and consider all the alternatives before introducing that first device.
Even if your child already has a smartphone or an iPad, you — as the parent — can change how that device is used in your home. When we learn new information, we change our behaviors. Change is never easy, but when your kids see you leading by example, they learn that they can change too, and that we all can do hard things.
WHY WAIT
When it comes to screen use, there are many reasons to wait.
- Health & well being: Overuse of screens for leisure is numbing and quickly sets up pathways for addiction in developing brains. Early and frequent screen use has been associated with: depression, anxiety, myopia, obesity, disordered eating, and more.
- Opportunity cost: Time spent on screens is time not spent on countless other important and developmentally appropriate activities, including: imaginative play, time outside, household chores, boredom!
WHY ACT
Big tech companies see all of us — especially children — as customers. They are motivated by profit margins, not what’s best for our kids. Together, we can reshape the landscape and create a culture that brings focus back to learning, joy back to childhood and harmony back to households.
WHY NOW
As young people who grew up with 24/7 access to technology become parents, they risk falling prey to the "boiling frog phenomenon". People adapt to slow, incremental changes, often normalizing them until they reach a catastrophic level. Elevated levels of tech addiction are already normalized. Youth depression and anxiety are likely to be next. The only path out of this cycle is collective action.