We Don’t Need to Surrender to Our Smartphones

Two Nationwide Surveys: Gen Z & Their Parents

PulseDailiy partnered with the Harris Poll for a two-part study:

• Wave 1: 1,006 Gen Z adults revealed they feel FOMO yet “trapped” by TikTok, Snapchat and friends.
• Wave 2: 1,013 U.S. parents of minors expose similar regret — and a desire for tougher norms and laws.

How Early Is Too Early?

55 % of parents say their child became a primary smartphone user before 12;
61 % report the same for tablets. Social-media adoption quickly followed, often in defiance of the
legal COPPA age floor of 13.

Regret index: 1 in 3 parents thinks they handed over social media “too young,”
while just 1 % believes they waited too long.

Why Parents Say “We Gave In Too Soon”

What Parents Wish Had Never Been Invented

More than half would erase social media from history, ranking it alongside firearms as a top parental fear.

Four Community Norms to Break the Cycle

1. No smartphones before high school (supported by 67 % of parents).
2. No social media before 16 (73 % support; 70 % want a federal age-16 minimum).
3. Phone-free schools bell-to-bell (backed by 63 %).
4. More real-world independence & free play (40–47 % want kids out with peers unsupervised).

Policy Momentum: States & Nations Act

• 10 U.S. states now mandate phone-free classrooms; 21 enforce partial bans.
• Australia lifted the social-media age to 16; France plans 15 if the EU stalls.
• Brazil: 100 % of schools are phone-free all day.