Why Social Media and Smartphones Are Not for Children: A Call to Action for the Church and Parents

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In today's world, it's no surprise that children and teenagers aren't okay. Mental health conditions like anxiety, depression, eating disorders, exposure to pornography, and even suicide are rampant—both in and out of the church. Though many parents and leaders think a here-and-there conversation and parental filters will keep young minds and hearts safe, the last ten years have shown that that strategy isn't enough.

The truth is painful: social media and smartphones are damaging our kids—and we need to do something. 

📱The Digital Dangers Our Kids Face Daily

In The Tech Exit, Clare Morell compares social media to second-hand smoke and how its impact reaches beyond individual use and into group life. Trevin Wax, a culture watcher, then followed up asking, "Could scrolling become the new smoking?" The answer, based on rising studies, appears to be yes.

Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation and others have documented the growing dangers of smartphone and social media use by teens, including:

• Poor sleep
• High levels of anxiety and depression
• Inability to focus their attention
• Social isolation and loneliness
• Exposure to unhealthy adult content

And yet 95% of 13- to 17-year-old teens use social media daily, many without parents even knowing the full extent.

🚨Digital Dope: The Addictive Reality of Smartphones

Writer Patrick Miller goes on in Scrolling Ourselves to Death to liken the smartphone to a "digital syringe." Decades can go by before nicotine harms a user, but social media is creating deaths of despair in young people today.

Parents are well-acquainted with TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram but can't begin to imagine just how intensely addictive and destructive they can become—especially in adolescents who are still developing emotionally and neurologically.

🔞Why Age Restrictions Make Sense

• Countries like Australia and Sweden are taking bold action:
• Australia raised the age on social media to 16.
• Sweden is restricting screen time in school.
• Virginia, USA, banned phone use during school hours with huge success—less disciplining and more attentive students.

Just as we have age restrictions on alcohol, smoking, and driving, so too do we need to apply the same wisdom to internet-enabled devices and social media. It's not overreacting—it's protecting.

🚫Parental Controls Are Not Enough

Parents use app ratings or parental control software in many cases. But as Dr. Ravi Kesari describes, even apps with 4+ age ratings may contain harmful content like pro-anorexia messages and explicit material.

The Utah App Store Accountability Act and several bills in Texas are trying to fix it—but 48 states still lack baseline protections.

The FBI recently issued an alert regarding the "764 network," an international network of predators that target children on the internet. Websites are rampant with predators, and nothing is safe from harm with likes, shares, or filters.

🧠Screens Aren't Neutral: How Tech Undermines Real Community

It was predicted by writer Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves to Death. He believed that while Sesame Street taught children to love TV, it didn't teach children to love learning. Today, the same is true of TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.

• TikTok does not encourage creativity—it encourages consumption.
• YouTube does not build community—it builds dependency.
• Social media does not teach empathy—it teaches comparison.

As Christians, we must say out loud that the social internet is no replacement for real, flesh-and-blood, God-ordained community.

⛪ The Church Has a Role in Protecting Children

The church cannot be quiet. We must:

• Tell the truth about the dangers of early device exposure
• Help parents make countercultural decisions
• Create smartphone-free youth spaces
• Plant deep friendships and bodily community

We shouldn't embarrass parents who've been misled by technology culture, but we should welcome them to a better way. We should help families with the wisdom that smartphones and social media are unnecessary initiations—they're too frequently harmful diversions.

🛡️Real-Life Solutions: How Families Are Fighting Back

In Maryland, a group of parents started the "Postman Pledge," a promise by parents to not give children smartphones and social media until they reach adulthood. Instead, they focus on building real-world community, person-to-person friendships, and screen-free childhoods.

Other parents are even reintroducing landlines—a plain, controlled way of letting children communicate without letting in addictive apps or obscene content.

Our family has, and it works. Our children are still in touch with each other, communicate freely, and aren't on the emotional rollercoaster of the algorithmic web.

📢What You Can Do Today

Here are practical steps for families, churches, and communities ready to push back against digital addiction:

• Wait until after high school to give smartphones.
• Say no to social media to kids—straight up.
• Join or start a local pledge community (e.g., the Postman Pledge).
• Educate others in your church or school about the threats to mental health.
• Encourage landlines or plain phones for little ones.
• Model good tech habits as an adult.
• Designate screen-free zones and device-free family times.

🧒Kids Deserve Better: Stand in the Gap

The mental health emergency is not a number; it's our youth group young people, our next-door neighbors, our children and teens. If we love them, we must be brave enough to say that smartphones and social media are not meant for teenagers. Until the laws are updated, the church needs to rise up with bravery, courage, and compassion.

As the saying goes: If we don't defend our children, who will?