Help With Your Child’s Screen Use
Clear answers about screen time, first phones, online risks, difficult conversations and what to do when your child cannot stop.
What Do You Need Help With?
Choose the question that is closest to what is happening in your family.
My child cannot stop and I am worried
The difference between a child who uses screens a lot and a child in real trouble, what to do this week, and where to get help that costs nothing.
Start here if it is already a problem
How much screen time is right for my child's age?
Under 2, 2 to 5, 6 to 9, 10 to 12, 13 to 15 and 16 to 18. What the guidance says at each age, the main risk, how much sleep they need, and what screens push out.
Age by age
When should I give my child a phone?
What the ownership figures actually show, what the campaigns recommend, and the smartwatches and basic phones that give you a way to reach them without giving them a feed.
The big decision
Sextortion: the threat most parents have not heard of
More than 50,000 reports in 2025 and at least three dozen boys dead. It targets teenage boys, it moves in hours, and one sentence said in advance is the best protection there is.
Most urgent
My child is talking to an AI
86% of children aged 9 to 17 now use AI and 11% say it understands them better than most people. What these companions are, what has already gone wrong, and what to do.
Newest risk
How to talk to your child about screen use without starting a fight
Why confiscation teaches concealment, the sentence that puts you on the same side of the problem, and how to raise it so the conversation continues afterwards.
The conversation
What the evidence actually says
The research in full: what is not in dispute, what is genuinely contested, the case made by Haidt's critics, and my answer to it.
The research
The best screen-time resources for parents
The organisations worth knowing, the books worth reading, the films worth watching together, and what to ask your child's school for.
Directory
Two Stories About Children And Screens
Both are fiction from Michael's book Entranced. Read them together, then talk about what felt familiar.
