Jonathan Haidt

Well, I'll start off by just saying this problem seems so big. And the main criticism I've gotten in the last year, there's almost nothing about how I got the story wrong. The criticism is almost always, oh, it's too late. Oh, it's hopeless. Oh, the technology is here to stay. But what we've seen since the book launched last April is that parents are fed up. Teachers are fed up.

legislators are fed up because they're parents, and kids are fed up. So I'm incredibly optimistic that we are going to roll this back. The phone-based childhood only arrived 12 years ago. It hasn't been there that long. We can get rid of it, and I think we're going to. Catherine, what would you add?

legislators are fed up because they're parents, and kids are fed up. So I'm incredibly optimistic that we are going to roll this back. The phone-based childhood only arrived 12 years ago. It hasn't been there that long. We can get rid of it, and I think we're going to. Catherine, what would you add?

legislators are fed up because they're parents, and kids are fed up. So I'm incredibly optimistic that we are going to roll this back. The phone-based childhood only arrived 12 years ago. It hasn't been there that long. We can get rid of it, and I think we're going to. Catherine, what would you add?

What a prick. And you get points for the number of times... And you played this game.

What a prick. And you get points for the number of times... And you played this game.

Well, what I discovered once the book came out and even before it came out Was that there is a desperation among mothers in particular that all over the world, family life has turned into a fight over screen time. Everyone hates it. We didn't ask for it. Wasn't like this in 2010. I mean, of course, there are always arguments over TV.

Well, what I discovered once the book came out and even before it came out Was that there is a desperation among mothers in particular that all over the world, family life has turned into a fight over screen time. Everyone hates it. We didn't ask for it. Wasn't like this in 2010. I mean, of course, there are always arguments over TV.

But once kids got touchscreen devices, which are much more addictive. You have a stimulus response loop, which is much more addictive than watching a story on a screen. And so family life changed and people couldn't, like, what the hell is going on? And my sense is that mothers felt their kids being pulled away much more than fathers did. Fathers were often like, oh, you know, cool video game.

But once kids got touchscreen devices, which are much more addictive. You have a stimulus response loop, which is much more addictive than watching a story on a screen. And so family life changed and people couldn't, like, what the hell is going on? And my sense is that mothers felt their kids being pulled away much more than fathers did. Fathers were often like, oh, you know, cool video game.

But mothers really felt it. And so that's what's driven the success of the book is it. It's mothers around the world and all the political changes, all the laws that are being introduced. Oftentimes, it's either a female governor like Sarah Huckabee Sanders in Arkansas or it's the governor or prime minister's wife who reads the book and says – and this is what happened in Australia.

But mothers really felt it. And so that's what's driven the success of the book is it. It's mothers around the world and all the political changes, all the laws that are being introduced. Oftentimes, it's either a female governor like Sarah Huckabee Sanders in Arkansas or it's the governor or prime minister's wife who reads the book and says – and this is what happened in Australia.

The wife of one of the premier of South Australia read the book and she said – she was reading it in bed and she turns to him and says, Peter, you've got to read this book and then you've got to fucking do something about it. Wow. So he did. And that's what started the process in Australia.

The wife of one of the premier of South Australia read the book and she said – she was reading it in bed and she turns to him and says, Peter, you've got to read this book and then you've got to fucking do something about it. Wow. So he did. And that's what started the process in Australia.

I can summarize the whole book by saying that we've overprotected our children in the real world and we've underprotected them online. Another way to say it is the book is a tragedy in two acts. Act one, we lose the play-based childhood. And this really kicks in in the 1990s. So older millennials, people who grew up in the 70s and 80s, there was a huge crime wave at that time, in America at least.

I can summarize the whole book by saying that we've overprotected our children in the real world and we've underprotected them online. Another way to say it is the book is a tragedy in two acts. Act one, we lose the play-based childhood. And this really kicks in in the 1990s. So older millennials, people who grew up in the 70s and 80s, there was a huge crime wave at that time, in America at least.

But all kids played outside. You just go outside and play.

But all kids played outside. You just go outside and play.

And then it's the 90s, which is actually when crime is dropping and life is getting safer and drunk driving is going down. We freak out in the 90s and we start saying, well, it's too dangerous out there. It's too dangerous. You know, stay home. You have to always be supervised or you'll be abducted. We freaked out about child abduction. So that's one of the tragedies. We pull the kids indoors.

And then it's the 90s, which is actually when crime is dropping and life is getting safer and drunk driving is going down. We freak out in the 90s and we start saying, well, it's too dangerous out there. It's too dangerous. You know, stay home. You have to always be supervised or you'll be abducted. We freaked out about child abduction. So that's one of the tragedies. We pull the kids indoors.