People we read
Being listed here is not an endorsement of all their views. The list deliberately includes people who disagree with each other, because on this subject, disagreement is valuable. Each link goes to where they actually publish.
Abby
Speech language pathologist
On the role of play in language development, including gestalt language processors, and on building responsible screen habits early. Her feed is the main channel and carries most of the resources.
Ryan Broderick
Writes Garbage Day
A journalist on internet culture, which is the water your kids are swimming in. The best way to understand the gaming and meme worlds they are joining, told with more affection than alarm.
Mariana Brussoni
Professor, University of British Columbia
Leads the research on risky play that position statements cite. Built OutsidePlay, a free tool that walks a worried parent through letting go a little, which is rarer and more useful than another warning.
Raffaele Ciriello
University of Sydney
Writes on human and AI companionship, which is becoming one of the harder things for parents to think clearly about, and on the ethics of emerging technology.
De Kai
Professor and author, The Future Society
An AI researcher writing about what these systems do to the societies using them, beyond what they can do.
Peter Gray
Research professor, Boston College
The psychologist of free play. Decades of evidence that children build judgment and courage in play adults stay out of, written up weekly on his Substack with patience and heat.
Sam Gregory
Researcher on deepfakes and media authenticity
Deepfakes, synthetic media and how anyone can tell what is real. He helped write the technical standard for signaling where an image came from, and argues for preparation without the panic.
Jonathan Haidt
Writes After Babel
Argues that a play-based childhood gave way to a phone-based one. The most influential case for restriction, and the most contested. He publishes the argument, and the pushback to it, here rather than in books alone.
Tristan Harris
Co-founder, Center for Humane Technology
How products are designed to hold attention, explained clearly enough to repeat to a child. Their podcast, Your Undivided Attention, is the easiest way in.
Christine Haskell
Technology advisor and author
On data practice and technology leadership, and runs workshops. Useful if you are the person raising this at a school or a workplace.
Na Young Kim
Lawyer and data scientist
Advises on AI governance and cybersecurity.
Nataliya Kos'myna
Research scientist, MIT Media Lab
Works on the interaction between AI and the brain, including attention and learning, with UNICEF and Google.
Sonia Livingstone
Professor, LSE
Has studied children's online lives longer and across more countries than anyone. The evidence-first voice in a debate that runs hot on both sides, and the person to read when a headline seems too tidy.
J. Nathan Matias
Cornell, Citizens and Technology Lab
Studies how platforms are governed and runs research that communities can actually take part in, rather than be the subject of.
Jacqueline Nesi
Psychologist, Brown University
Reads the studies before summarizing them. Her Techno Sapiens newsletter is weekly, practical and allergic to panic, and is the closest thing this field has to a fair referee.
Catherine Price
Writes How to Feel Alive
Practical habit change for adults, which is where most family screen problems actually start. She runs a phone breakup challenge each February that is worth doing yourself before asking it of your kids.
Lenore Skenazy
Founder, Let Grow
Made the case for free-range childhood before it had a movement. Let Grow turns the argument into school programs and a defense of ordinary independence, and it is the practical arm of everything this site says about play.
Science editorial desk
Peer-reviewed journal
Useful counterweight on how unsettled the social media research actually is. Worth reading next to Haidt, as the cross-examination.
Alison Yeung
Writes The Smartphone Effect MD
A doctor and a mother, writing weekly on helping parents push back against a tech-driven culture. Practical toolkits, light on theory.
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