Should we give toddlers phones?

Explain It to Me

Vox Media Podcast Network

Education, Politics, News, Society & Culture

4.4 • 7.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 October 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What we know about early childhood and screens, including a surprising argument for introducing tech at a tender age. This episode was produced by Miles Bryan, edited by Megan Cunnane, fact-checked by Melissa Hirsch, engineered by Adriene Lilly and Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Jonquilyn Hill. Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images. You can find Dr. Jenny Radesky and her colleagues’ tool kit for parents here. If you have a question, give us a call on 1-800-618-8545 or send us a note here. Listen to Explain It to Me ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	At Liddle, we value the variety of life.
0:02.9	It's why we're introducing four for two pounds on eight Little Bakery favorites with Little Plats.
0:07.8	You can mix your twists with your turnovers, create a croissant supergroup, or just nab a whole bag of Pekan Plats.
0:13.6	Liddle, more to value.
0:15.4	Subject to availability, GB-only 18 plus terms apply.
0:18.1	See little.com.
0:19.9	Liddle.com.
0:21.9	I felt like I needed to keep my kid off of social media and away from phone and away from technology.
0:27.8	Kids create much more what we call solitary space around a tablet.
0:33.0	At some point between the ages of two and three, we decided to give our daughter her first phone.
0:38.8	I'm John Gulen Hill.
0:40.3	This is explain it to me from Vox.
0:42.2	And this is Adam Clark Estes.
0:44.5	So my wife and I had a kid a couple years ago.
0:47.7	And since then, I've not been able to stop thinking about how she's going to grow up in
0:53.0	a world dominated by tech.
0:54.7	Adam's been covering our tech-dominated world for years now.
0:58.1	He's a senior tech correspondent here at Vox and writes a newsletter called User Friendly.
1:02.9	It's generally about how technology works in our lives and works for us and against us sometimes.
1:08.6	But I'm increasingly interested in what tech is doing to the next generation.
1:13.3	Yes, Adam is an expert, but he's a parent first and foremost.
1:17.4	And even he's still trying to figure out how his own toddler should be interacting with screens.
	...

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