The longer you wait to give your child a smartphone or allow them to join social media, the happier and more successful they're likely to be as adults, says psychologist Jean Twenge.
To help parents facilitate that technological delay, Twenge recommends starting to teach kids how to use those technologies in safe and healthy ways at least six years in advance. Starting early helps prepare children to have healthier relationships with online technologies, aiding their development into well-adjusted, successful adults, she says.
"Ideally, it's great to have these rules in mind by the time your kids are in late elementary school, say, to be prepared. Because kids are getting these devices younger and younger," says Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University whose latest book, "10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World," published on September 2.
In her book, Twenge recommended against social media for kids until age 16, and wrote that children shouldn't have a smartphone unless they also have a driver's license and are expected to "get around independently." Her rationale: Those technologies are contributing to higher rates of mental health issues in teens, such as anxiety and depression, she wrote.
