Practical family plans
Screen Sanity
Age-based planners, a first-phone comparison chart and a video-game decision tree. Start here when you want something practical to print and use.
If you have got this far you are doing the work, and the honest truth is that you do not have to invent any of it yourself — other people have already built the things you need.
This is where they are. Everything here is free unless it says otherwise, nothing on this page is sponsored, and nobody can pay to be listed or described more kindly.
Organisations, and what each is actually for
Independent research
Children and Screens
Research summaries, expert webinars and age-specific guidance from an independent organisation that states it takes no technology-industry funding.
Films, games and apps
Common Sense Media
Search for a specific film, programme, game or app and see its age rating, content notes and parent reviews.
US · First-phone pledge
Wait Until 8th
A school-based pledge to delay smartphones. The pledge becomes active once ten families from the same grade and school sign it.
UK · Parent movement
Smartphone Free Childhood
A parent-led movement for delaying smartphones, with local groups and practical guidance on age-appropriate devices.
UK · Safety setup
Internet Matters
Step-by-step safety and privacy guides for devices, platforms and games, plus current research into children's online lives.
Urgent · US reporting and image removal
NCMEC
Report sextortion or child exploitation to the CyberTipline. Take It Down can help prevent or remove the sharing of nude or sexual images taken before age 18. Call 1-800-843-5678.
If you would rather listen: the benefits of pulling the plug (11 min)
Books
For parents and policy makers
The Anxious Generation
Jonathan Haidt's case for how phone-based childhood changed young people's lives. This site broadly agrees with it; the evidence page also sets out the strongest arguments against it.
For children aged eight and up
The Amazing Generation
Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price write directly to children rather than about them. This is the one to hand over rather than lecture from.
Michael's story
Entranced
Not a parenting book, but a first-person account of what the digital trance feels like from the inside — the part children often cannot explain.
More recommendations, with what each is useful for, are on the complete books page.
Watch something together
Co-viewing is the best-evidenced thing you can do, so this list is the most useful one on the page. The films and videos page has the full set with what each is about and who it suits. Days of Freedom is short and gentle enough for a family evening.
What to ask your child's school for
A phone-free school day, phones locked away rather than in pockets. Florida's statewide ban produced measurable gains in test scores and a significant fall in unexplained absence. An English study across 30 schools found no wellbeing difference because phones simply moved to after the bell, which is an argument for going further rather than for giving up.
Schools that try this get pressure from parents to reverse it. If you want it, say so to the head teacher in writing, and say it publicly at the parents' evening. That is the whole mechanism.
If it has gone past ordinary overuse
The help directory — free twelve-step meetings running every day online, family-facing groups, and the clinical options. Media Addicts Anonymous and ITAA both cost nothing.
Michael Mackintosh
Author · meditation teacher · founder of Digital Detox
Michael has spent much of his working life online—and much of the rest of it trying to stop that technology taking over. He has thrown a phone into a lake, locked devices in boxes and experimented with long periods offline. He writes about what helped, what failed and how to keep the useful parts of digital life.
Last updated 9 August 2026. This page is checked and corrected as new research comes out. If you spot something out of date or wrong, tell me and I will fix it.