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Young people and their parents are stuck in one or more of four collective-action traps. Each is a challenge to escape, but escape would be made much easier if families in a school worked together. If the following four actions could become community norms at CHA, I believe we would see significant benefits for students in a very short period of time.

Norm #1: No smartphones before high school

The trap here is that each child thinks they need a smartphone because “everyone else” has one, and many parents give in because they don’t want their child to feel excluded. But if no one else had a smartphone, or even if only half of a class had a smartphone, then parents would feel more comfortable providing a “dumb” phone (more on “dumb phone” options in future blogs) or no phone at all. If delaying round-the-clock internet access until ninth grade became a school norm, then students would be more protected during the very vulnerable first few years of puberty.

Norm #2: No social media before 16

The trap here is that each adolescent feels a strong need to open accounts on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and other platforms primarily because that is where many of their peers are posting and gossiping. If the majority of students were not on these accounts until they were 16, families and students could more easily resist the pressure to sign up. This is not to say that students could never watch YouTube videos or make a social media post —only that they could not open accounts, give away their data, post their own content, and let algorithms get to know them and their preferences (which can be damaging or, even, dangerous).

Norm #3: Phone‐free schools

We are already making strides in this pursuit at CHA. Comments from the article: “The only way to get students’ minds off their phones during the school day is to require all students to put their phones (and other devices that can send or receive texts) into a phone locker at the start of the day. Schools that have gone phone-free always seem to report that it has improved the culture, making students more attentive in class and more interactive with one another. Published studies back them up.” Our experience at CHA in 2023-24 concurs with these findings.

Norm #4: More independence, free play, and responsibility in the real world

Many parents are afraid to give their children the level of independence and responsibility they themselves enjoyed when they were young, even though rates of homicide, drunk driving, and other physical threats to children are way down in recent decades. (More on this in a future blog.)

“It would be a mistake to overlook this fourth norm. If parents don’t replace screen time with real-world experiences involving friends and independent activity, then banning devices will feel like deprivation, not the opening up of a world of opportunities.”

A “phone-based childhood” greatly reduces the amount of real-life experiences that a child can have. Put succinctly, “smartphones are experience blockers.” We should strive to give our children a childhood and adolescence that God designed them to have, to experience His creation and to develop relationships so that they can be anchored in the real world while flourishing in the digital age.