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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 And while it's easy to blame Big Tech, lagging schools, and outdated policies, parents remain the ultimate gatekeepers of screen access.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.
Katherine Martinko is the author of Childhood Unplugged: How to Set Screen Limits, Reduce Device Dependence, and Reclaim Childhood. A speaker on behalf of Jonathan Haidt's Anxious Generation campaign, she gives talks internationally on how to reclaim childhood from devices. In her Substack newsletter, The Analog Family, and in columns for The Globe and Mail newspaper, she offers smart guidance on tough topics, like when to give kids smartphones, how to navigate FOMO, and why parental modeling matters. A graduate of the University of Toronto, Katherine lives in Ontario, Canada.
Introduction
Part I: Parents
— It's Not (Entirely) Your Fault
— Listen to Your Gut
— You Can Change Your Mind
— Set New Rules
— Be Choosy
— Fight Fear
— Reject Surveillance
— Ignore the Influencers
— Technoference
— Hold Back
Part II: Households
— Design for the Life You Want
— Fill the Void
— Cultivate Usefulness
— Build Strong Play Habitats
— Say Yes to Sleepovers
— Mark the Passage of Time
— The Real FaceTime
— Take Analog Vacations
— Take Fewer Pictures
— It's OK to Do Less
Part III: Community
— Kids Included
— Bring Back Parental Solidarity
— Teens Need Playgrounds, Too
— Host More Dinners
— Don't Show, Just Tell
— When Other Kids Have Phones
— Be the Neighbour You Wish You Had
— What Schools Can Do
— Bring Back Teenage Babysitters
— Away to Camp
Conclusion: It's Your Moment. Go Boldly.