How to give your child a phone

Psychologist Dr Martha Deiros Collado shares tips for introducing smartphones to kids... and the whole family needs to listen

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THE greatest challenge of modern parenting is deciding when and how to give a child a smartphone. In today’s digital age, it's inevitable children will own one at some point. Phones are where friendships are built, gossip is exchanged, homework is shared and entertainment spreads.

But it also exposes them to risks they may not be ready to handle and can steal hours that may otherwise be spent in everyday moments of boredom or quiet company that teach life skills.

Real life is often repetitive, ordinary and dull, and learning to sit with that requires patience, delayed gratification and strong emotional self-regulation.

Our brains don't fully mature until our mid-20s and it’s not until adolescence that the prefrontal cortex (responsible for self-control, long-term thinking and emotional regulation) begins to buffer impulses and manage big feelings.

This is why smartphone features like short-form videos and endless scrolls can hijack a child’s developing brain and make it appear they are “addicted”, when really phones are simply far more stimulating than the slow-paced real world.

But whether you are a parent of a child or a teen who already owns a phone, you don't need to panic.

DELAY SMARTPHONES UNTIL 13 (OR OLDER)