News Investigation

'Wait Until 8th' Asks Parents to Delay Smartphones for Kids

Sep 2022 🇺🇸 TODAY.com

This TODAY.com feature, written by Allison Slater Tate, profiles Brooke Shannon and the continued growth of the Wait Until 8th pledge five years after its founding. Shannon describes what first drew her to organize parents — seeing young elementary-school children with smartphones — and lists the concerns she raises with other parents, including distraction, disrupted sleep, cyberbullying, and exposure to inappropriate content, presented as risks tied to early, unsupervised access rather than guaranteed outcomes. The piece includes a supportive outside quote from child-development expert Dr. Deborah Gilboa, who says the pledge helps normalize delay, alongside a dissenting parent's view that smartphones can help kids stay socially connected, especially outside a traditional school setting. TechKids Foundation cites this piece as a mainstream, non-advocacy news account of both the pledge's rationale and its critics.

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CITATION

Allison Slater Tate, "'Wait Until 8th' Asks Parents to Delay Smartphones for Kids," TODAY.com, September 20, 2022 (syndicated via Yahoo News). https://www.yahoo.com/news/wait-until-8th-asks-parents-152700921.html

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