When it comes to kids and screens, we know that not all technology is created equal. There’s a big difference between kids logging in and out of a device with no parental controls for hours on end, and engaging with carefully curated educational content for 20 minutes with a parent.
There are also many in-betweens.
Educators and experts around the world are urging parents to take steps to prevent childhood from being lost in the twists and turns of YouTube and the time-wasters of TikTok.
Even children admit to feeling better without devices and say they wish adults would do more to help them learn and grow without being obsessed with technology.
“I’m a teenager and I can’t seem to control my phone time. I find myself scrolling through social media when I could be outside in the weather I wish I had all school year,” wrote one reader after my latest column about the pros and cons of screen time, especially in the summer.
I’ve also heard parents say that they still struggle with “the ground rules, the non-negotiables, and all the limitations that technology imposes. It still requires ongoing, consistent, and unwavering management.”
Another parent, however, wrote: “The technology is ridiculous and needs to be brought under control by regulation.”
A 17-year-old family friend, who asked that I not use her name, said that as a high school student, she wished “phones were never introduced to my generation because of the impact it had on my childhood and my mental health.”
So where are we in all this? What’s a well-meaning parent to do?
Consider “training wheel” type devices
Just because your child wants a smartphone doesn’t mean you should get them a new iPhone or the latest Samsung Galaxy and hope for the best. Take advantage of gadgets designed to grow with your kids.
There are several phones that fit this profile, including devices from Bark, Gabb, and Troomi. The one I recommend the most to my friends and family right now is Pinwheel. It offers five models of Android phones with built-in parental controls.
There’s no web browser or social media access. However, you can view your child’s text messages and call history. From the parent portal, you can choose from 1,200 apps to allow or block. It’s also easy to set time limits for each app and close everything at bedtime.
One of the best features is that you can use it with your current carrier (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.), which is great if you want to add it to an existing family plan (depending on the model you choose). You have to pay for the phone up front, and they start at $99. The ongoing subscription is $15 per month.
Another good option is to go for a basic flip phone, as famous parents like Jerry Seinfeld have recently stated.
Which tablet is safe for children?
For tablets, you can use parental controls on your old iPad. Amazon makes inexpensive, easy-to-use, and safe kids’ tablets, and AT&T recently released a new device aimed at kids called the amiGO Jr. Tab, which I’ve been evaluating since it launched earlier this year.
In a recent survey, AT&T said nearly 62% of parents said they felt guilty about giving their child a device, with behavioral issues and exposure to inappropriate or unintentional sites being their biggest concerns.
The amiGo Jr. Tab is meant to help kids. It comes preloaded with apps and activities designed to encourage them to be creative and explore new ideas instead of just tuning out. It also has strong safeguards to prevent any adult or mature content. It also makes managing screen time a little easier with a built-in app that lets parents limit playtime.
The amiGo Jr. Tab costs $166 upfront, or you can pay in monthly installments, and you’ll either have to add it to your existing AT&T plan for $20/month or pay $55/month for a new account.
A tablet designed specifically for kids is a great option if you’ve already decided that’s the route you want to take, but as expert warnings grow louder, a slew of other new options for parents are popping up at a steady pace.
Use technology to help you manage your devices
I just started testing Aura’s $10/month parental control and child safety features. It joins parental control apps like Bark, Qustodio, Net Nanny, Canopy, Family Time, and more. The goal is to create safer online spaces for kids by helping caregivers monitor what they do and who they interact with.
It’s too early to tell how Aura compares to others, but the most essential feature of any parental control set is the ability to use them to help kids grow and learn, not just “break” them.
A British study recently published in the Journal of Children and Media concludes that “parental controls should not be seen as a silver bullet that will ensure online safety.” The study concludes that parents should inform their children when they are using monitoring apps and “incorporate them into a positive parenting framework that focuses on open communication and respectful negotiation within the family.” If not implemented properly, the study suggests it can lead to “higher levels of conflict and mistrust within the family, or have negative impacts on children’s privacy and autonomy.”
Coming soon: AI tools to help improve screen time for kids
The online world reflects humanity, from its most beautiful aspects to its darkest thoughts. It can be upsetting even for an adult, and school-age children do not benefit from exposure to the most unpleasant aspects of the Internet.
Artificial intelligence is also a reflection of society, but it’s a tool we can actually use for good. It can identify virtually anything, including the safety of a given web page or search term, acting as a kind of protective bubble for children as they browse the internet.
“Our mission is not to deprive children of the internet. As any parent can attest, kids want what they can’t have,” Angel AI CEO Tim Estes wrote via email. “The online world can also be an incredibly valuable resource for children, who risk missing out on critical learning opportunities, as well as the chance to develop healthy online habits, if they don’t explore the internet earlier in life.”
Angel AI is an app set to be released this fall that lets kids explore the internet while holding the digital hand of an AI designed specifically to protect them from harm. Estes said all queries and activity on the app are secure and encrypted, and no searches are tied to personally identifiable information.
When I first tested the app on my iPhone, it was both simple and intuitive to use. I opened the app, allowed it to connect to my microphone, and then tapped “Ask.” A small floating AI appeared and asked me what I wanted to explore. “Tell me about the largest dinosaurs ever discovered,” I said.
The AI “thinks” for a second, then displays an image and some text, and reads it in the same voice an adult would use to talk to a child. “The largest dinosaur ever discovered is called Argentinosaurus,” it says before automatically dragging a new image onto the screen and reading it again. “The Argentinosaurus was as long as four school buses! Isn’t that interesting?”
After each search, you can delve deeper into a topic or ask another question. Children who are fascinated by videos can search specifically for videos or even just images.
Summer and screens:How to Get Your Kids to Put Down Their Phones This Summer
“How can I get better at Fortnight?” I ask, not only because I’m pretending to be a kid, but also because I need some guidance. “Here are some videos I found,” the AI replies, along with three that, upon review, are both informative and totally kid-friendly. (We’ll see if they improve my score, but for now, the app seems to be doing its job.)
If I try to search for something less kid-friendly, the AI’s guardrails kick in and guide me toward a safer train of thought. For example, a query for “a bunch of guns” gets a message telling the child to ask an adult, along with safer (but exciting) question options like “How do astronauts breathe in space?” and “What planets could humans live on?”
“Angel understands content that is inappropriate for older adults and sensitive topics that are best handled by an adult,” Estes says. “You can’t access the open and dangerous internet through Angel. The content that Angel views or creates must go through content and topic filtering, ensuring its appropriateness regardless of its origin.”
Meanwhile, I have a new alert on my parent account: apparently, my fictional child has asked the AI to show him some guns. It’s a cool feature that, again, does what it’s supposed to do: get my “child” and I talking about something extremely important.
Jennifer Jolly is an Emmy Award-winning consumer technology columnist and on-air correspondent. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY. Contact her atJJ@Techish.com.
