The 2025 poll, conducted by the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, asked American parents of children ages 1 to 18 about their opinions on a variety of child health topics, including bullying, internet safety, physical inactivity, parental stress, and diet.
The Mott Poll, released in August, found that a majority of parents surveyed (69%) believe the physical health of American children and teens is worsening. And even more parents are concerned about their children’s mental health, with 83% believing that the mental health of children and teens in the United States is also declining.
The poll results also show that parents believe social media, too much screen time, and internet safety are some of the biggest concerns facing children today.
“Since social media use increased from around 2010, the prevalence of mental health problems among young people has also increased significantly,” the report said. “This increase, particularly in depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation, continued throughout the years of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Jonathan Haidt, social scientist and author of The Anxious Generation, is one of many experts sounding the alarm about the relationship between smartphones and social media and the rise in anxiety and depression among young people.
“All of these devices are designed to keep kids scrolling for hours on end,” he previously told CNBC Make It. “Average viewing time excluding school is 8-10 hours.”
“If we want to have any hope of them growing healthy, we have to put it back together,” he said.
Hite recommends that parents be more intentional about reducing their children’s device and social media use. Here, he and Gene Twenge, a professor of psychology and author of “10 Rules for Raising Children in a High-Tech World,” offer some recommendations on how parents can go about doing just that.
Smartphones are prohibited until high school students
Hite advocates clear boundaries, saying kids shouldn’t get smartphones until they’re in high school.
A global study of 27,969 18- to 24-year-olds conducted by nonprofit Sapien Labs found that the older you are when you first own a smartphone, the better your mental well-being. Hite also recommends parents not enable social media use on their children’s phones until they are 16 years old.
Hite suggests that parents set up a designated area for their children when they get a device.
“They live on the kitchen counter,” Hite said as an example. “Check it out if you want.”
Don’t put up a screen in your bedroom overnight
Twenge advocates keeping screens out of your bedroom overnight.
“It’s just a non-disputable situation where you say, ‘I don’t need that phone in my bedroom where I’m supposed to be sleeping,’ period. End of story. The mic dropped. It’s over,” Twenge previously told CNBC Make It.
Devices in the bedroom can disrupt your child’s sleep by slowing down scrolling or waking them up with notifications. “Not getting enough sleep is a risk factor for everything you want your children to avoid, from illness to depression,” Twenge writes in her book, “10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World.”
Hite will go one step further and not install any screens in the bedroom, he said.
Let’s play more freely outside
To keep kids from getting too absorbed in their devices, Hite also recommends parents encourage them to spend time outside with friends.
The community can decide whether to institute what he calls “Friday Free Play.”
“We all know that’s when kids gather in the park and play baseball and soccer and things like that,” he previously told Make It. “Maybe it’s just in the school playground.”
After all, he says, playing with friends without a screen is “the most fun for kids.” You might have so much going on that you might ask to continue spending time with your friends over the weekend.
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