The research behind Screenable
At Screenable, we are rethinking parental controls from the ground up, guided by the latest research and advisories. Here we present key findings motivating our approach.
👇
➜ We know there’s a challenge.
Smartphones and other devices are impacting us and our kids in ways we don’t yet fully understand.
Kids are struggling. There’s a lot of concern about kids’ rising anxiety, depression, and suicidality. These are real concerns and something we parents need to be very attuned to. But whether phones and social media caused them, or something else (like parental overprotection and loss of kid independence, which some have suggested), isn’t yet totally clear.
Parents are struggling. What we do know is that many of us parents are wrestling – hard – with how to navigate this new world of technology, with and for our kids. Whether it’s the hand-wringing about the right age to get kids their first phone, or deciding which apps should be allowed, or generally navigating how to keep them safe, we parents need help.
➜ Parent-kid relationships are key.
A consistent throughline of all the research is that trusting relationships between parents and kids are key to kids’ tech-health.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) states it clearly: “Close relationships between parents and their children are associated with fewer online risk-taking behaviors in adolescents.”
Similarly, a 2023 Gallup poll found that “When teens report having a strong, loving relationship with their parents or caretakers, their level of social media use no longer predicts mental health problems.”
Accordingly, the latest advisories recommend prioritizing relationship and open communication.
The 2023 advisory by the Surgeon General strongly encourages parents to “have conversations with children about who they are connecting with, their privacy settings, their online experiences, and how they are spending their time online.” And the American Psychological Association (APA) similarly advises, “Parental [coaching and discussion] and developmentally appropriate limit-setting thus is critical, especially in early adolescence.”
➜ Parental controls are eroding trust, especially for teens.
Intuitively, any type of controlling or monitoring within a relationship comes from – and then causes more of – low trust.
“Any kind of monitoring can undermine the trust that you are trying to build with your teen — that foundation that leads them to come to you when there is a problem,” said Devorah Heitner, author of Screenwise and Growing Up In Public: Coming of Age in a Digital World, in 2023.
In 2020 the NYTimes asked kids their feelings about being tracked by parents, and (probably predictably) many responded by reporting that it invaded their privacy and broke down trust.
A unique study in 2018 by the University of Central Florida found that “authoritarian parents, who were less responsive to their teen’s need for autonomy, were the most likely to use the parental control apps, and the use of these apps was associated with teens experiencing more, not fewer, online risks.” Furthermore, “Teens, and even younger children, told us loudly and clearly that they would rather their parents talk to them than use parental control apps,” Ghosh said. “Not because they wanted to get away with something bad, but because they wanted their parents’ trust and respect.”
📰:
➜ Parental controls don’t help kids develop critical skills.
We’re not preparing our kids for the inevitable day they’re making their own choices.
The AAP said it clearly in their July 2023 post: “Relying on restrictive rules or monitoring technologies makes it harder for [kids] to problem-solve and develop the autonomy they need to navigate digital technology in ways that support their development.”
This is specifically because the bent of parental controls is towards controlling rather than teaching kids: “Unfortunately, existing parental control apps do not support the developmental process of adolescents because they often fail to balance parental values and desires with their children’s own values, needs, and wants. Consider that 89% of features on parental online safety apps are targeted specifically toward parental control, while only 11% of features on these apps support some form of teen self-regulation.”
Stephen Balkam, the CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), said in November 2021, “We believe that when a child reaches a level of maturity where they can make responsible decisions online, parents should move from monitoring to mentoring and from blocking to talking. A parent’s role changes to being more of a co-pilot.”
➜ Parental controls are hard for parents to use.
If all that weren’t bad enough, parental controls are just plain complicated and frustrating.
In February 2024, the WSJ’s Julie Jargon concluded that, “Parental controls have failed – and it’s not parents’ fault.” She goes on to say, “Think about this: Tech companies expect parents to have the time and skills to dig into their kids’ apps. Every app the child uses has different controls and defaults, so it can be confusing and cumbersome. Apple promised a one-stop-shop solution with its Screen Time settings, but that has proven unreliable.”
A 2023 poll by the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC) found that 61% of parents say they need better information about how to use parental controls – up from 51% a year earlier. And nearly two-thirds of parents say that current parental controls are inadequate, also up from the previous year.
More generally, in 2020 a Pew Research Center poll found that “two-thirds of parents in the U.S. say parenting is harder today than it was 20 years ago” with the top two reasons being “technology” and “social media” – ranking higher than drugs/violence, less family time, or both parents needing to work.
📰: