The Parenting Mistake Everyone Makes | 7.26.26

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This is a Bose moment. Your 10 boring blocks from home, until the beat drops in Bose Clarity.
And the baseline transforms boring into maybe the best part of your day. Your life deserves music. Your music deserves Bose. Find your perfect product at bose.com.

**Clare Morell** (0:19)
Introducing Meta Glasses. You have questions, they've got answers.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:25)
Hey Meta, what's the capital of Peru?

**SPEAKER_4** (0:27)
Lima. How do you say, where's the restroom in Spanish? Dónde está el baño?
Hey Meta, is a hot dog a sandwich? Technically no. Spiritually, yes.

**Clare Morell** (0:39)
Hey Meta, what should I do with my life?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:42)
That's one of life's biggest questions.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:44)
What do you think?

**Georgia Howe** (0:46)
Ask anything with the new Meta Glasses.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:53)
A landmark moment as France passes a law banning social media use for anyone under 15 years old. That makes France the first European nation to actually do so. Several other European countries have also drafted similar legislation after Australia became the world's first country to ban use for anyone under the age of 16

**Georgia Howe** (1:11)
In today's episode, we speak to an award-winning author about the effect of smartphones on kids and practical solutions for protecting your family. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. And this is a weekend episode of Morning Wire.
Joining us now is Clare Morell, author of The Tech Exit, A Practical Guide for Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones. Clare, thanks for coming on.

**Clare Morell** (1:33)
Thanks for having me.

**Georgia Howe** (1:35)
So in your new book, you've been arguing that some of the mainstream solutions to the tech and screen time issue with kids are not really working. So first of all, what are the signs that they're not working? And what are those strategies that we've been encouraged to use?

**Clare Morell** (1:50)
Absolutely. So what I talk about in my book is how the main strategies kind of hold to parents are screen time limits and parental controls. But if we look at the research, in reality, these are really not working out. And we can see this because the design of interactive screens, smartphones, social media apps is inherently addictive. And screen times do not work when something is addictive because even in a short amount of time, these children are getting these artificially high bursts of dopamine while they're on these platforms or these screens. And then immediately, as soon as they leave the app or the screen, their brain plunges into this dopamine deficit state, which creates this constant craving to go back on. So the time limit will really never be enough. And even in a short amount of time, they can experience those addictive effects. And then what happens is, say, 15 minutes a day, cumulatively, over time, even those 15 minutes a day, is really too much for a child's developing brain and nervous system. And so what happens, then, is they actually, their brain, over time, becomes desensitized to pleasures in the real world. Their brain is in this kind of chronic dopamine deficit state. And so just, I kind of make the analogy in the book. We've treated screens like sugar, something that can be enjoyed in moderation. But when we look at the brain research, these screens act on the brain the same way highly addictive substances like drugs, alcohol and tobacco do.
And so they're not safe in any amount. In the same way we've restricted those other dangerous addictive substances out of childhood, we need to take a similar approach to screens. They're more like digital fentanyl than they are like sugar.

**Georgia Howe** (3:30)
Now I know when I was young, there was a lot of concern about screen time. Of course, at that time, it was cartoons or at a certain point, MTV was a big concern for parents, as well as computer time. Would you say that screen time today is different than screen time in the past in terms of the way it affects the brain, or is all screen time, either big screen, small screen, the same?

**Clare Morell** (3:56)
No. Screen time today is very different than it has been in the past. I tried to distinguish this in the book, these categories of what I call interactive screens, where the user is actually interacting and getting feedback from the screen or the app. That is what makes it so addicting. That's what releases those hits of dopamine, is they actually get the social feedback or they're able to interact with it on gaming apps or social media. There's this constant interaction, and that's what makes it so addicting. That's different. Television is more of a passive screen. You're consuming content.