# What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones.

1 Opinion August 4, 2025 The Atlantic ![Jonathan Haidt](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/Jonathan%20Haidt%20Article.jpg?itok=SDdY1pZY)By Jonathan Haidt, Lenore Skenazy, and Zach Rausch

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One common explanation for why children spend so much of their free time on screens goes like this: Smartphones and social-media platforms are addicting them. Kids stare at their devices and socialize online instead of in person because that’s what tech has trained them to want.

But this misses a key part of the story. The three of us collaborated with the Harris Poll to survey a group of Americans whose perspectives don’t often show up in national data: children. What they told us offers a comprehensive picture of how American childhood is changing—and, more important, how to make it better.

In March, the Harris Poll surveyed more than 500 children ages 8 to 12 across the United States, who were assured that their answers would remain private. They offered unmistakable evidence that the phone-based childhood is in full force. A majority reported having smartphones, and about half of the 10-to-12-year-olds said that most or all of their friends use social media.

Read the full [***The Atlantic*** **article**](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/08/kids-smartphones-play-freedom/683742/).
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*Jonathan Haidt is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership.*

## More from Jonathan Haidt

- [What the World Should Learn from Australia’s Social Media Law.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/opinion/what-world-should-learn-australias-social-media-law)
- [Why the World Is Drawing a Line on Social Media for Kids.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/why-world-drawing-line-social-media-kids)
- [Universities Can’t Pursue Truth Without Viewpoint Diversity.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/universities-cant-pursue-truth-without-viewpoint-diversity)
- [We Don’t Have to Give In to the Smartphones.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/we-dont-have-give-smartphones)
- [Gen Z Has Regrets.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/gen-z-has-regrets)