Hold the Phone: How Parents Can Rescue Their Kids From Too Much Screen Time
No one else is coming to save your kid from their screen addiction. That’s your job!
Smartphones are reshaping childhood. Parents are well positioned to set the limits that kids desperately need.
In Hold the Phone, author and speaker Katherine Martinko delivers fresh, empowering ideas for reducing screen time, breaking device dependence, and restoring a healthy play-based childhood in the digital age. Child and teen tech habits don’t form by accident―they crystallize under the expectations, rules, and examples set at home. And while it’s easy to blame Big Tech, lagging schools, and outdated policies, parents remain the ultimate gatekeepers of screen access.
This book equips and encourages you to:
- Set firm, realistic screen limits that actually work
- Reduce smartphone use and device dependence at home
- Walk back tech use that is out of control or was introduced prematurely
- End daily battles over scrolling and gaming
- Model healthier tech habits as a parent
- Replace screen time with play, independence, and real-world connection
- Develop community that makes offline play more accessible
- Build a family culture that protects childhood from digital overload
You don’t have to wait for schools, lawmakers, or tech companies to act. You have the power to resist and make change at home, starting today. Childhood is short. The real world is amazing. It’s time to hold the phone―and give kids the life they deserve.
With a foreword by Jean M. Twenge, PhD
Childhood Unplugged:Practical Advice to Get Kids Off Screens and Find Balance
Screens are everywhere. Children spend an average of 7.5 hours on digital devices every day with profoundly negative consequences. While some tech may “amplify” real-life experiences, the vast majority undermines it by limiting physical activity, creating anxiety, or damaging self-esteem. Childhood Unplugged takes a bold approach to creating healthy boundaries around the use of digital media.
Described as “mandatory reading for all parents” and “the rallying cry we have been waiting for,” Childhood Unplugged has been well received since its publication in July 2023. With appearances on CBC The National, CBC Radio, and numerous podcasts, as well as op-eds in the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star, among other publications, Katherine’s message of digital minimalism has hit a nerve with readers around the world. The book educates, empowers, and equips parents and guardians with the tools they need to take a stand against the digital deluge that threatens to overwhelm kids’ lives.
You can get a copy wherever books are sold. Available as an e-book, audiobook (narrated by the author), and PDF. Translations in Vietnamese, Italian, and Lithuanian.
