A surge of suffering is happening to teenagers around the world with rising rates of anxiety, depression and self harm.
We changed their childhoods with smartphones says social psychologist Dr Jonathan Haidt, making it harder for them to flourish as adults.
He calls the decline in teen mental health a tragedy in two acts; overprotecting children in the real world preventing them from playing unsupervised and being independent, and under protecting them from the dangers of the online world.
Dr Haidt is calling for a revolution, including no smartphones before age 16 and no phones in school. His new book is called, "The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness."
The Anxious Generation book cover Photo: Penguin Books New Zealand
