Brooke Shannon on Waiting to Introduce the Smartphone: 5 Questions with Family Studies
In this five-question written interview, the Institute for Family Studies asks Wait Until 8th founder Brooke Shannon to walk through her own thinking on smartphone timing. She describes what first alarmed her — watching middle-schoolers leave school absorbed in their phones — and cites outside data on how many hours some teens spend on screens daily as part of her rationale. Shannon frames the pledge as non-judgmental: delaying smartphones to eighth grade isn't realistic for every family, she says, and she encourages parents to weigh their own circumstances rather than follow one rule. She also discusses classroom phone use, the fear of missing out the pledge is meant to relieve, and building parent coalitions at the school level. TechKids Foundation cites this interview as a fuller statement, in Shannon's own words, of how she balances a firm public pledge with flexibility for individual families.
Shannon cites the average age U.S. children receive a smartphone as around 10, which she describes as younger than the independence a smartphone requires.
Shannon references research finding some teens spend more than seven hours a day on screens as part of her rationale for delaying access.
"Brooke Shannon on Waiting to Introduce the Smartphone: 5 Questions with Family Studies," Institute for Family Studies, December 11, 2019. https://ifstudies.org/blog/brooke-shannon-on-waiting-to-introduce-the-smartphone-5-questions-with-family-studies