Is your child’s brain being rewired? – part 2

September 9, 2025

 

Last week we saw that there is a ‘Great Rewiring’ or our children’s brains that’s causing a tidal wave of mental health problems.

And one of the causes of this is the smart phone.

In his book ‘The Anxious Generation’, social psychologist shares not just the risks to our kids of using smart phones, but he has some suggestions for how we can turn the tables on the problem.

‘Childhood evolved for physical playfulness and exploration. Children thrive when they are rooted in real-world communities, not in disembodied virtual networks. Growing up in the virtual world promotes anxiety, anomie, and loneliness. The Great Rewiring of Childhood, from play-based to phone-based, has been a catastrophic failure,’ he says.

‘It’s time to end the experiment.’

Here are some of his suggestions.

Governments and tech companies can protect minors by

  • raising the age of internet adulthood to 16
  • encouraging phone-free schools
  • design public spaces to accommodate kids, not just cars.

Schools can protect kids by

  • going phone-free all day, not just in class time, because phones interfere with education as well as social relationships
  • giving more time and opportunity for unstructured free play.

‘A school that is phone-free and play-full is … loosening the grip of the virtual world, thereby fostering better learning and relationships in the real world,’ Haidt says.

Parents can protect kids by

  • encouraging kids to have more and better experiences in the real world, including free play
  • encouraging person-to-person social interaction and sleep
  • restricting screen-based activities
  • implementing rules eg removing all devices from bedrooms at least half an hour before bedtime
  • delaying opening of social media accounts until 16
  • connecting with other parents with the same goals to create a supportive environment for your child.

Jonathan Haidt, ‘The Anxious Generation – How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness’, Penguin/Random House, 2024

You can see this article on our website here.

You can see part 1 of this article on our website here.

How to solve this problem:

EMR Australia recommends the following simple solution: don’t allow smart phones to be sold to children under the age of 16.

Do you have questions you’d like answered?

Book a phone consultation with one of Australia’s most knowledgeable and experienced consultants and obtain insights about how EMF may be affecting you, your home or your family and what you can do about it here.

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