Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Creator Playbook Look Up Back to School Mashable Selects Say More Trending Now Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Switch Off Mashable Voices Safety Net Versus All Series Now children can keep playing audio content even if they've misplaced their cards. Amanda Yeo is an Assistant Editor at Mashable, covering entertainment, culture, tech, science, and social good. Based in Australia, she writes about everything from video games and K-pop to movies and gadgets. All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission.

Want to Get Off Your Phone? "I think that's been the most helpful thing," says the ESPN journalist. "So there you go, Zoomers. There's a reason to have children." I just got it replaced because I cracked the screen with my car. I was resting it on the roof and it slid down as I was opening the trunk, and it was a real crime scene. When you bring a cracked phone to an Apple store, you know that they've seen everything, but you still feel deeply ashamed.

Look Up Trending Now Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Creator Playbook Say More Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Switch Off Mashable Voices Mashable Selects Safety Net Versus Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List All Series American Psychological Association weighs in on classroom screen time: Quality or quantity? The organization doesn't want to ban screens, but still warns of their harm. Chase joined Mashable's Social Good team in 2020, covering online stories about digital activism, climate justice, accessibility, and media representation. Expert child psychologists urge caution around new and flashy educational technology. Classroom technology is the focus of a new report from the American Psychological Association (APA), which argues we should be focusing less on bans and more on the specific harms of flashy new tech.

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. The AI moratorium applies to district-owned devices. There is not yet a district policy on what students can do on non-district devices, an official said. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here .

Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Look Up Creator Playbook Mashable Voices Trending Now Say More Mashable Selects Safety Net Versus Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Switch Off In My Bag All Series Give your kid ad-free, guilt-free screen time for life with this $59.99 deal Hands-on learning meets mindful tech. The following content is brought to you by Mashable partners. If you buy a product featured here, we may earn an affiliate commission or other compensation. This lifetime Pok Pok subscription for kids is on sale for $59.99, 76% off Credit: Pok Pok Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. A lifetime subscription to Pok Pok, the ad-free, Montessori-inspired app for kids 2 to 8, is on sale for $59.99, a 76% discount off its usual $250 price.

Say More Look Up Mashable Selects Mashable Voices Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Safety Net Creator Hub Versus Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Switch Off Trending Now In My Bag All Series A custom iPhone Shortcut helped curb compulsive scrolling without relying on another screen-time app. The truth about iOS 27 Beta: Don't make this mistake! The new iOS 27 Shortcuts make it easy to program your own iPhone tricks with natural language. Bridget Carey explains how she used it to wean her from compulsively opening social media and getting lost in scrolling. You might find it better than other apps that limit screen time (and it's certainly cheaper than using a Brick).

"You can make a living, you can have a life, and leave 55,000 emails unread with a big fuck off." Pete Holmes has Crashing "Silly Silly Fun Boy" I love this phone so much. The first thing I love about it is that it did not do well. And when I saw it, I couldn't wait to get it. People often think it's an Android. People often don't know what it is. I like having a phone nobody else has.

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. Fifth grade students work on computers at their South Los Angeles school in 2019. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . Los Angeles Unified will ban classroom screen time in preschool through first grade and sharply limit it for older students.

This position paper argues that real-time generative AI has the potential to become the next wave of addictive digital media, creating a new class of digital content akin to "digital heroin" with severe implications for mental health and youth development. By shortening the content-generation feedback loop to mere seconds, these advanced models will soon be able to hyper-personalize outputs on the fly. When paired with misaligned incentives (e.g., maximizing user engagement), this will fuel unprecedented compulsive consumption patterns with far-reaching consequences for mental health, cognitive development, and social stability. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, from clinical observations of social media addiction to neuroscientific studies of dopamine-driven feedback, we illustrate how real-time tailored content generation may erode user autonomy, foment emotional distress, and disproportionately endanger vulnerable groups, such as adolescents. Due to the rapid advancement of generative AI and its potential to induce severe addictionlike effects, we call for strong government oversight akin to existing controls on addictive substances, particularly for minors. We further urge the machine learning community to act proactively by establishing robust design guidelines, collaborating with public health experts, and supporting targeted policy measures to ensure responsible and ethical deployment, rather than paving the way for another wave of unregulated digital dependence.

The company behind the UK's newest video game console is not concerned with the latest state-of-the-art graphics or hardware. Instead, David Lee, chief executive of US technology firm Nex, says its cube-shaped machine, the Nex Playground, is designed to get children moving. The relatively little-known device surprised the games industry when research firm Circana revealed it was the third best-selling console in the US over Black Friday 2025, outselling the Xbox Series S and X. While motion-controlled gaming is nothing new - Nintendo's Wii launched in 2006 - concerns around children's passive screen time remain a hot topic for many parents and politicians. Ahead of the UK launch I spoke to parents who already own the console in the US, and tried the machine myself to find out how it works - and if it can really get families feeling fitter.