Dear Editor,
I am writing on an issue of vital importance to us as a community and especially our children; and that issue is the potential for personal communications technology to both enrich and impoverish our lives. Researchers, medical, educational, and mental health experts, and
government bodies, have begun to recognize that despite the many benefits of our technological age, there are also many drawbacks.
Ongoing tech and social media usage is rewiring our brains to wonder less, reduce our in-person social engagement, and withdraw from
friends, family, and conversations by losing ourselves in endless content. Tech is reframing the way we view ourselves. Anxiety levels are on the rise. Our bodies have been trained to have a physical response every time our devices ding with a notification, text, or email. As a mental health expert, I have worked with clients seeking a way to change their relationship with tech to ease the pain of social anxiety, improve sleep, reengage in activities that are meaningful, and strengthen relationships.
This is what many adults are struggling with every day. Now, let’s talk about our children. A recent New York Times survey of 350 teachers found that 40% of middle and high school students spend 3+ hours on screens at school; and a 2024 CDC study found that while 50.4% of teens ages 12 – 17 report more than 4 hours of non-school related weekday screen time:
● Teenagers who had 4 or more hours of daily screen time were more likely to have had anxiety symptoms in the past 2 weeks (27.1%) compared with teenagers with less than 4 hours of daily screen time (12.3%).
● Teenagers who had 4 or more hours of daily screen time were more likely to have had depression symptoms in the past 2 weeks (25.9%) compared with teenagers with less than 4 hours of daily screen time (9.5%).
Our children are struggling, even more than adults, in trying to balance technology in their lives. They simply don’t have the discipline or the insight to maintain a balanced relationship with tech entirely on their own. It pains me to work with young people in therapy who have been exposed to hateful, pornographic, violent, or other harmful content. Some have disengaged from real-life relationships and many have online lives (hidden from adults) where they are being bullied or exposed to things they aren’t ready for.
Learning real-life relationship skills can often be difficult and stressful, but living through screens allows young people to avoid discomfort, while also removing opportunities for growth and development of those crucial relationship skills. I’m a member of a group of parents and educators in Culver City called CC Families for Slow Tech. Our group started out small, but has grown over time.
We collected over 1,000 signatures from Culver City parents, teachers and admin on a joint letter to the Culver City Unified School District Board of Education, most within just a few days of circulating. We have done the research and read the studies. We have heard firsthand accounts of students right here in Culver City who are bullied in group chats, feel unsafe in bathrooms in fear of someone taking inappropriate photos, being exposed to adult content at school on their devices, and struggling to make new friends because at lunch and social activities “everyone is staring at their phones the whole time.”
Entire countries like Finland, Norway, Denmark, and France have recognized this and have begun enacting laws to slow down tech exposure with our children. Our own state government has acknowledged the issue in Assembly Bill 3216, known as the Phone-Free School Act, which mandates that all public school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education in California develop and implement policies to restrict or prohibit smartphone use by students during school hours by July 1, 2026.
Across Southern California, both public and private schools are taking action. Many are enacting bell-to-bell phone-free days that allow our students to go to school and focus on learning, making friends, and engaging in their school community during school hours. At this time, Culver City Middle School is the only 6th – 8th campus on the westside without such a policy. Our group of parents, educators, and administrators have been advocating our school district leadership, our school board members, and school administration to follow suit by joining other schools in enacting phone-free school days.
At this time, CCMS school policy allows for phones to be used at lunch, nutrition breaks, and passing periods, but they are not to be used during class, while CCHS asks that phones be put away in a designated area during class time. Unfortunately, that policy is ineffective. Students have their phone on their person all day, losing out on social time.
Class time restrictions are inconsistently enforced, so students are often on their phones during class scrolling YouTube, playing video games, social media, or group chats when they should be focusing on the class lesson. In fact, there are instances in which some classes require that students scan QR codes or access information via their phones for classwork, which increases the pressure on students who don’t have devices at school, and on parents who want to keep it that way.
On this journey, we have heard many valid reasons as to why we are in the current situation–we don’t have enough staff on campuses to enforce a policy (recent budget cuts have amplified this very real issue), some parents want to be able to reach their students at all times during the school day (something that was unheard of just 20 years ago, but a common concern today). Some solutions that other campuses are employing, such as buying pouches for all devices to be stored in during the school day are beyond the reach of our current budgetary situation. The district has recently formed an advisory council to focus on this issue, and we hope they will come up with practical solutions to address this issue more comprehensively.
We need policies that will allow our students to flourish, free from external distractions. And, we need comprehensive school procedures to support a phone-free day (including accommodations for special circumstances). We are holding regular meetings to inform parents of the research and brainstorming solutions to address concerns about potential changes. We know that we need to keep speaking out as we look to next steps, and keep engaging with other families and community members. If you want to know more, please reach out to us at www.ccforslowtech.org. We want CCUSD to be a leader in student safety and academic excellence. Together, let’s make that happen.
Gina Polesetsky,
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
Member of CC Families for Slow Tech
