If your son or daughter really can't put down that iPhone, it may be evidence of a deeper problem. Cell phones, iPads and other electronic devices are omnipresent for many kids. Some of them need to seek treatment for what is a real addiction.
Tech guru Peter Shankman says parents bear a lot of the responsibility for this.
“I see parents picking up their kids at school when I go to get my daughter,” he says. “When they pick them up they say, here you go, honey, and they give them the iPad, (or) they give them the phone. How about talking to them?”
Shankman suggests limiting your child's screen time, no devices at the dinner table, demand eye contact and remove the phone well before bed time.
“We said this 40 years ago,” he points out. “We said the TV shouldn't be a substitute parent. Well, now we have to say that the device shouldn't be either.”
Limiting this starts at home.
“How about starting small? Fifteen, 20 minutes a day. Walk outside. Go exploring.”