Saving Our Kids From Scrolling To Death

It’s no secret that kids today are not all right. Youth rates of anxiety and depression, eating disorders, pornography exposure, and suicide remain shockingly high. Inside and outside the church, we’ve falsely believed that the dangers posed to developing brains by smartphones and social media can be overcome with occasional conversations or the latest parental controls, or by a “mature” teenager.

But the past decade has demonstrated that our current methodologies—however well intentioned—aren’t working to slay the digital beast.

What will work? Are these dangerous devices simply a necessary evil in our kids’ lives? Or are there more effective ways we can mitigate their influence?

Digital Dope

Writing in her new book, The Tech Exit, Clare Morell documents how technology is like second-hand smoke: “The teen mental health crisis today is due not only to negative effects of digital technologies for individuals but also to the group social dynamics that smartphones and social media have created.” This echoes the question recently asked by Trevin Wax: “Could Scrolling Become the New Smoking?” With studies showing increased levels of anxiety for teens who are passive scrollers, it’s time we age-restrict tablets, smartphones, and social media until adulthood.

It’s time we age-restrict tablets, smartphones, and social media until adulthood.

Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation documented many of the dangers. Countries such as Australia and Sweden have responded boldly. Australia raised the minimum age of social media use to 16, and Sweden took necessary steps to reduce the presence of tablets and computers in schools. A year ago in my home state of Virginia, governor Glenn Youngkin introduced a measure to prohibit phone use by students during the school day. It’s going remarkably well, with fewer discipline issues and happier, more connected students.

While many people have compared smartphones to cigarettes, Patrick Miller is perhaps more accurate when he writes in Scrolling Ourselves to Death, “Your phone is a digital syringe.” Nicotine addiction may cause cancer after decades of use, but “digital dope” is leading to deaths of despair for teens and 20-somethings now.

Miller goes on to say, “Ninety-five percent of teens between thirteen and seventeen are using digital dope, and most parents can’t bring themselves to tell them to stop, even though social media’s dangerous and addictive effects are now widely known.”

We can improve the mental health crisis among youth, but only if we’re willing to speak the truth. We must be bold and declare that smartphones and social media aren’t for minors. We can no longer put forward the narrative that just a little bit of digital dope is OK, so long as our kids make good grades and still attend youth group.

We shouldn’t blame or ridicule parents, but we do need to call them to a higher standard. The church must be willing to say that parental controls are a red herring and that the social internet is simply incapable of replacing the goodness of in-person community.

Protect Children

Recently, I spoke with a mom who relies on internet controls to safeguard her son’s smartphone. She had prohibited him from downloading apps rated ages 17+. As a well-educated, actively engaged parent, she was unaware that some apps rated ages 4+ can still include pornography and eating disorder information.

App stores aren’t tethered to any real standards and lack appropriate regulations. Utah’s App Store Accountability Act aims to rectify this, as does recently passed legislation in Texas. But the other 48 states have no such laws, leaving millions of children less protected than their parents believe.

We can no longer put forward the narrative that just a little bit of digital dope is OK, so long as our kids make good grades and still attend youth group.

An FBI warning on the “764 network” documents how minors are targeted by a crime ring of bad actors who “manipulate or coerce victims to produce Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) and other videos depicting animal cruelty and self-harm.” The FBI notes that posting photos and videos of minors puts the subjects at risk of becoming victimized. No amount of “likes” is worth this risk, not even on a church’s social media feed.

This isn’t a new problem, though. Forty years ago, Neil Postman wrote in Amusing Ourselves to Death, “As a television show, and a good one, Sesame Street does not encourage children to love school or anything about school. It encourages them to love television.”

In the same way, Instagram doesn’t encourage children to love community. YouTube doesn’t encourage a love of serving others. TikTok doesn’t encourage creativity. They all encourage children to love consuming content on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. We don’t have to be against the internet in its entirety to be against minors being preyed upon by addictive, algorithm driven apps.

Ultimately, it’s not enough to say yes to a smartphone and no to social media. An internet-connected device in your son’s or daughter’s pocket allows too much, too soon. Research shows that the earlier minors receive a smartphone or tablet, the worse their mental health will fare into early adulthood. Waiting until after high school graduation is the prudent response.

This approach isn’t without precedent. We have age requirements on purchasing cigarettes, alcohol, and guns and on entering strip clubs. Minimum age restrictions exist for getting a driver’s license or riding in the front seat of a car. We’ve collectively agreed that some things aren’t safe for children and teens. Until our laws catch up with our needs, the church should stand in the gap and protect children.

How You Can Take Action

A group in Maryland has done as much by signing the “Postman Pledge,” agreeing to restrict smartphone and social media access for their children and teens. Instead, they commit to creating “deep bonds of community . . . to foster friendship among our families in the natural, traditional ways human cultures have always done.” They aren’t doing something new, but they are doing something good.

We don’t have to be against the internet in its entirety to be against minors using the social internet.

My family has chosen to install a landline phone, as have a handful of our friends. My sons use the landline to make plans with their buddies or clarify the evening’s homework assignment. Parents of their friends are accustomed to fielding calls from my children and often praise their communication skills. As some of my sons’ friends have gotten smartphones, our landline is still an effective means of communication. And I never have to worry that an app update will undo parental controls.

Internet culture’s negative influences have seeped into our homes and our churches, despite our best efforts. The narrative that we must teach kids how to use these devices well hasn’t produced much fruit. Rare is the adult who claims a healthy relationship with his or her smartphone. As followers of Christ, we must be brave enough to stand up for children and say that smartphones, tablets, and social media aren’t for minors.

Our kids are scrolling themselves to death, but this can end. The church can fight for children. After all, if we don’t, then who will?