The smart phone conversation starts early in families these days, and once it starts it seems to go on forever. My six year old son came home from kindergarten earlier this year and asked when he’d get a smart phone like his buddy in class. Anna and I also get this question a lot from parents who want to do the right thing, and believe they have the right answer, but want to make sure they’re not being reactionary or simply “old fashioned”.

So we made an episode to help with that! Today we’re going to answer the question “When should my child get a smart phone?”

And, spoiler alert, our answer is when they’re 16 or 17. No really. There are very few reasons it’s beneficial before then and there are lots of reasons it should wait. We’d actually argue it should be even later in life (the brain is developing into the our mid-20s and we’ve seen plenty of adults who’ve build up some terrible habits), but we also understand this is the real world and parents need to be prepared to raise kids who are healthy and whole, loving God and using tech, not simply sheltered and ignorant of the real hope and dangers out there.

In this episode we’ll cover seven reasons to not give a smart phone before age 16:

1. focus
2. bullies
3. happiness
4. pornography
5. overstimulating tech
6. sleep
7. strangers (creepers and just outside influences)

If you want to read more of the research you can check out:

.Removing smart phones can increase test scores. Beland, Murphy, 2015: eprints.lse.ac.uk/62574/

.Smart phones can cause brain drain. Ward, Duke et al, 2017: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/691462

.Use of entertainment technology has a “robust negative impact” on gpa. Jacobsen and Forste, 2011: DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2010.0135