Ban the Phones, Says Governor Sanders

“America’s kids are facing a mental health crisis.”

That’s the opening line of a statement Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders sent this month to governors of all the 50 states and to legislators in her own state of Arkansas.

She included in each delivery a copy of Jonathan Haidt’s book “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness,” which compiles persuasive evidence of the impact the smartphone has had on the emotional condition of teens. (For discussions of Mr. Haidt’s book, see Politico’s “‘It’s Causing Them to Drop Out of Life’: How Phones Warped Gen Z,” Time magazine’s “Jonathan Haidt: Putting down the screen,” and the American Enterprise Institute’s April 8 American Dream Lecture Series.)

Gov. Sanders endorses Mr. Haidt’s policy recommendations. They are:
 

• No smartphones before high school.
• No social media before age 16.
• Phone-free schools.
• More outdoor play and childhood independence.

These are blunt and sweeping descriptions, and each one should be implemented immediately. Mr. Haidt and Ms. Sanders are absolutely right. When social media came about 20 years ago, younger Americans were the first ones to pick them up.

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