Marin Voice: Schools need new approach to smartphones, social media

Smartphones and social media have been creating school chaos for over a decade.

Youth Transforming Justice, a community-based school suspension diversion program founded in 2004, began to see a significant uptick in internet bullying in 2012. Smartphones and social media have increased the bullying footprint and impact on targeted victims, as well as the ability for children to compare their lives and appearances with the glossy fabricated images of the famous and rich has negatively impacted youths’ mental health.

Recently an internet bullying incident motivated a physical assault that injured two students at Sinaloa Middle School. The assault resulted in the arrest of four students between 12 and 14 years old; all involved were girls. At a school meeting responding to the assault, Liz Nelson, a 29-year teaching veteran, told parents, “Schools have changed, times have changed, children have changed.” She said the core issue was that educators and schools are being challenged by a new generation of students raised on cellphones and social media. Nelson called for a community partnership to address this troubling issue.

Jonathan Haidt, a renowned social psychologist and best-selling author, has studied the origins of the rapid increase of childhood mental health outcomes. In his new book, “The Anxious Generation,” Haidt points to data that reveals the transition from a play-based childhood to a phone-based childhood has been a disaster for the cognitive and social development of young people.

“We are overprotecting children in the real world and unprotecting them online,” Haidt wrote. “Children need a play-based childhood in the real world to thrive. The two main factors preventing a healthy childhood are smartphones and fearful parenting.

“One of the main reasons we give our kids phones at age 9 or 10 is because they come home from school saying, ‘Mom, everyone else has an iPhone, I have to have an iPhone, or I’ll be left out.’”

To address the problem, Haidt is encouraging parents to engage in collective action to protect their children. He offers four actionable strategies to mitigate the epidemic of youth mental illness.

“One: No smartphone before high school,” Haidt wrote. “You can give them a flip phone if you absolutely need to text. Two: No social media before the age of 16. Social media is entirely inappropriate for younger children. Three: Schools need to be phone-free. Imagine that when I was a kid growing up in the ’70s, if we had been allowed to bring in our television sets and our radios along with toys and games and put them on our desk and use them during class. … Four: We need to restore a play-based childhood. Kids need more independence, free play and responsibility in the real world. … That’s how they’re going to resolve disputes in life.”

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy agrees. On June 17 he called on Congress to require social media labeling, like tobacco and alcohol, warning that social media is harming youngsters’ mental health.

Fairfax’s Lisa Tabb, the Producer of the “Screenagers” trilogy collection of award-winning films that delve into the relationship between teens and screen time, has been in the forefront of protecting children’s mental health locally.

Perhaps the Sinaloa Middle School incident and hundreds of similar incidents at other schools could be avoided if Haidt’s four norms were in place. All too often, schools’ default to punitive discipline when incidents occur, rather than looking at the source of the behaviors and investing in systems that give young people the opportunity to learn skills for resolving disputes face-to-face.

Youth Transforming Justice and Resilient Marin, two organizations that are concerned about the impacts of unhealed trauma on children’s mental health, are sponsoring a community book read of “The Anxious Generation.” We are looking to partner with parent groups, schools, libraries, mental health and drug prevention organizations in a collective effort to manifest the four norms that Haidt suggests. Please join us in creating a kinder and more supportive environment for our children. To get involved contact dcarney@ytjustice.org.

Don Carney is executive director of Youth Transforming Justice, a Marin-based nonprofit. Marion Kregeloh is founder of the Resilient Marin parent group.