Resource Kit for TPS Families
Hi everyone! Catherine Price here, TPS parent, author of How to Break Up With Your Phone, and advocate for screen/life balance.
Thanks so much for your interest in learning more (and doing something about!) kids, phones, social media and screens.
Here are some commonly requested resources.
(Do you need something else? Let me know—there’s a contact form at the bottom of this page.)
Feel free to share any and all of these resources with anyone you’d like — but if they’re not affiliated with TPS, please share the this Substack post, or send them a link to the YouTube video. (This particular page is just for families at TPS.)
Note: this page and these materials have not been officially approved or endorsed by TPS
TPS Families Only:
Join the Email List
If you found this page via an email, you’re already on my list of parents who have expressed interest. But if not, please be sure to sign up so that I can send you updates on events and resources related to kids, devices, and screens.
(This is an email list only for TPS families; please direct anyone else to my public resource page and encourage them to subscribe to my public Substack newsletter.)
Community Pledge:*
*Just for families at TPS — though anyone is welcome to copy the language for use at their own school.
As I mentioned in my presentation, I’ve created a voluntary pledge for families who are interested in taking collective action and committing to not getting their children smartphones or social media accounts while they’re at TPS. (This is entirely parent-led; the school is not involved.)
The hope is that, by creating a public community commitment, we will a. feel less alone, b. make other parents feel more comfortable joining us, and c. demonstrate to our children (if/when they start asking for a device) that no, everyone else does not actually have social media and a smartphone!
The pledge reads, “I/we pledge to not give my/our child(ren) smartphones or social media accounts while they are students at TPS.”
Note: This is not suggesting that 9th grade is a good time for a smartphone or social media! It’s just low-hanging fruit, since TPS is only K-8.
Note: Please be sure to find your child(ren)’s class year(s) at the bottom of the page— I’ve created different sheets for each grade.
General Resources
Am I missing something? Let me know in the contact form (scroll down)
Slide Deck
It’s a large file (because I embedded the videos) — so you’ll need to download it!
I put a ton of links into the notes in the slide deck, so if you don’t see something here that I talked about, it’s likely in the slides
Audio recording of presentation
Here’s an audio recording of the presentation if you’d prefer to just listen.
Guidelines and suggestions for kids and screens at home
I put together a Google Doc with the guidelines I went through in the presentation (e.g. keep screens out of bedrooms, communicate with other families, etc) — plus some bonus ones that got cut for time.
Smartphone Alternatives:
Agreeing not to give our kids smartphones while they’re at TPS doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get them any phone; it just means not giving them a phone that comes with social media and unfettered access to the internet. Thankfully, there are a lot of great smartphone alternatives on the market.
Note: These are great options if your child is an independent walker and you want a way to communicate but you don’t want to get them a full-fledged smartphone.
Tello (service provider for Alcatel — they have a “pay as you go” plan that’s great for family “loaner” phones)
Gizmo Watch (Verizon)
Here’s a comprehensive guide that I put together that describes many of the features of these particular phones (I didn’t get to the Bark or the Garmin yet!)
3rd Party Tools & Solutions:
This is the cool gadget I showed that allows you to block all apps on your phone except for the ones you choose to allow — which is great if, say, you want your kid to only be able to use a phone to listen to podcasts or audio books, or if you want to take a break from your own phone for a while! (Note: it does NOT work for iPads yet, unfortunately. For those, I recommend checking out the app blocker Freedom — not a perfect solution, but helpful.)
Parental Control Apps and Service Plans
You may also want to consider signing up for one of these “family protection plans,” offered by independent companies and as add-ons by cell/internet service providers, that have much more robust safety features and parental controls than the native parental control options on iPhones/Androids (more on which below). For example, you can set schedules for when certain apps are (and are not) available, or even set a schedule for times when internet access is available at your house.
Guides to Parental Controls:
If your child(ren) has access to any other internet-enabled device (like an iPad), I recommend taking the time to learn about and set up parental controls for individual apps and devices (which are annoying and often easy for kids to get around, but we have to try!).
These are a few that I found — if you know of more, please tell me about them using the contact form below. It takes a village!
Comprehensive guide to parental controls on a wide variety of devices <—- Start here!!!
Comcast Parental Control Guide for XFinity
Common Sense Media’s Parent Resource Page
Learn More: Books, Articles & Sites:
Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt (website with information on his book, plus a ton of useful resources)
Jonathan Haidt’s “After Babel” Substack Newsletter
After Babel post looking into the evidence on social media and mental health of teen girls (with links to open source collection of research studies)
After Babel post (from me): “A Parents Guide to Understanding the Harms of the Phone-Based Childhood, Along With Ten Tips for Rolling It Back”
Atlantic article summarizing The Anxious Generation
The Case for Phone-Free Schools by Jon Haidt: “The research is clear: Smartphones undermine attention, learning, relationships, and belonging”
ScreenStrong — an organization started by the mother of a former video game-addict that has very helpful, evidence-backed information about screentime and children’s brain development
Video of the former president and former VP of user growth at Facebook talking about the effects of the platforms that they helped to create
WSJ video expose on how TikTok’s algorithms lead users into rabbit holes
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s official advisory about social media and youth mental health
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s call for there to be a warning label on social media apps similar to the warning labels on cigarettes
Additional Resources
The American Academy of Pediatrics has a tool that you can use to create a customized media plan for your family.