People we read
Being listed here is not an endorsement of everything someone argues. The list deliberately includes people who disagree with each other, because on this subject the disagreement is the most useful thing to understand. 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 ecosystems they are joining, told with more affection than alarm.
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, rather than only what they can do.
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 signalling where an image came from, and argues for preparing rather than panicking.
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, which is the layer most parenting coverage skips entirely.
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.
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.
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.
Science editorial desk
Peer-reviewed journal
Useful counterweight on how unsettled the social media research actually is. Worth reading against Haidt rather than instead of him.
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 rather than theory.