Raised on AI: How Families Are Rethinking Children’s Tech
Parents, schools and governments are curbing children’s social media and devices as families weigh how iPhones, Apple Watches and AI can fit safely today.
Summary
One father opened Gmail and Twitter accounts for his first daughter at birth, published her face and birthday, then protected his second daughter’s privacy and scrubbed much of the first child’s footprint. His own smartphone obsession and his pediatric nurse wife’s experience with children hospitalized amid body dysmorphia and cyberbullying led both daughters to use flip phones and avoid TikTok. Similar caution extends into big tech, with Mark Zuckerberg withholding his children’s faces from Facebook and Instagram.
Jonathan Haidt’s bestselling 2024 book, The Anxious Generation, mainstreamed the movement despite criticism from developmental psychologists. In 2025, Australia became the first country to enact a social media ban for children under 16; Austria and Indonesia announced similar bans, the US Supreme Court upheld Texas age verification that functions as a de facto ban, several states considered restrictions, and schools replaced iPads and Chromebooks with books. Gen Alpha also embraced vintage Sony Walkmans. With AI unavoidable, teen and tween magazine Anyway helped shape an issue incorporating young people’s nuanced views. The family now gives its older high school student an iPhone and her younger sister an Apple Watch, supporting friendships and freer travel across the city while testing digital boundaries.
Positives
- The parent scrubbed much of his first daughter’s early digital footprint and now rarely posts photographs of either child.
- Australia’s 2025 law became the first national social media ban covering children under 16.
- School districts are replacing iPads and Chromebooks with physical books amid growing skepticism about children’s technology exposure.
- Anyway gathered complex and thoughtful AI perspectives directly from teens and tweens.
- An iPhone and Apple Watch are helping the two daughters build friendships and travel more freely across their city.
Risks & concerns
- A pediatric nurse encountered children hospitalized while struggling with body dysmorphia or cyberbullying linked to social media interactions.
- Gmail, Twitter posts and publicly shared photographs created a child’s digital footprint before she could consent.
- Some developmental psychologists dispute conclusions in Jonathan Haidt’s 2024 bestseller, The Anxious Generation.
- Texas age verification functions as a de facto ban, while several US states are considering additional restrictions.
- Technology permeates daily life, leaving families to prepare children for AI while remaining concerned about its dangers.