You are not the only one waiting.

Send one text to the other parents and find out who else is holding off. Once a few families are saying the same thing, your kid stops being the only one.

The Friend Group Digital Plan

A free printable pledge your families sign before the living pact takes over.

How this works

Add a family

Type their last name. Add as many as you want over time.

Invite them

Tap their circle and pick how you reached out, by text or in person.

Mark when they agree

Their circle turns green and the tree grows.

Pact Members

Shared agreements (0)

What you and these families are agreeing to

Add a custom agreement

Why this works

When enough families in the same friend group make the same decision together, the social penalty loses its power. Similar to the Wait Until 8th movement.

What’s on your mind?

Ask Leaf, from The Digital Childhood

Tell me what's happening and I'll help you find the right words. You can say it out loud instead of typing, or send a picture if you're not sure what something is.

Leaf is an AI, not a substitute for a professional.

Not sure where to start?

“He keeps asking for Snapchat.”

“I don’t know what to say about AI.”

“Gaming is taking over our evenings.”

Thinking it through with you…

A few words to try

Leaf says

A note from Chelsea: These responses are calm starting points grounded in our content, and they aren’t a replacement for a pediatrician, therapist, or any licensed professional. If something feels serious, please reach out to someone you trust who can actually help in person.

My Family

Every one of your kids is at a different stage, so each of them gets their own roadmap.

Add a child

Friend Group Digital Pact

Align with other families on tech.

Family Digital Pact

Your routines and agreements.

Share The Digital Childhood

Send to a friend who needs this.

Make it yours.

How you want The Digital Childhood to feel and behave on your device

Appearance

Notifications

Push notifications

Let The Digital Childhood send reminders to this device

Sunday-night family check-in

A gentle reflection delivered Sunday evening, so the week ahead starts with one calm thing you want to try.

Notifications stay light, about once a week and never more than one a day, and you can turn them off whenever you want.

Monthly digest

One calm email a month from The Digital Childhood, with the script most parents needed recently and an offline activity worth trying with your kids this week. We never spam and we never sell your email.

See a preview →

Help & support

FAQ

Plain answers to the common questions

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Email us

hello@thedigitalchildhood.com

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Subscription & billing

Manage subscription

Update payment, cancel, see billing

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Founder's pricing

Lock in $29/year for life

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More from The Digital Childhood

Get the free kit

30 screen-free adventures, printable

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For organizations

Bring it to the families you serve

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Privacy & data

Privacy Policy

How we protect your data

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Terms of Service

The agreement, in plain language

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Accessibility

Our WCAG 2.1 AA commitment

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Copyright (DMCA)

How to file a takedown notice

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Export my data

Download everything

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Share your feedback

What would make The Digital Childhood better for you?

Anything you want us to add, change, or fix. We read every single one.

What kind of feedback In your own words

Permanently deletes all your data. This can’t be undone.

About

The Digital Childhood™

Calm guidance for raising kids in a digital world

I'm Chelsea, and I built this for parents like me, the ones who needed a calm guide for the tech part of raising kids and couldn't find one anywhere.

I'm here to be a friend in your pocket.

I'm a stay-at-home mom of a son and a daughter, ages 6 and 8, and I was a kid who was deep in tech back when it wasn't on anyone's radar yet.

The Digital Childhood is what I wish my parents had when I was a kid, and what I wish I had now, so I created it.

When a hard moment happens, open The Digital Childhood.

Learn It

Context to learn your kid’s digital world

Explain It

Real scripts to explain technology to your kid

Protect Childhood

Pacts and offline tools to protect childhood

"You don't have to understand every app to raise a kid who uses them well."

None of this would exist without my nephew, Jack Pohlad, the technical developer and builder of The Digital Childhood application.

Our approach

We're not anti-technology here, we just want to take some of the overwhelm off your plate.

We believe technology is part of growing up today and we want kids to use it well, which means giving you the context of the tech they’re actually using and the words for the hard moments, while protecting the room for childhood to still feel like childhood.

Where this is grounded›

The Digital Childhood draws on research and reporting from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Common Sense Media, the Surgeon General's advisory on social media and youth mental health, the Wait Until 8th movement, Pew Research, and the work of Jonathan Haidt, among others. We try to anchor advice in real research.

What this app is not›

The Digital Childhood is meant to be a calm starting point for your family, and it isn’t a replacement for a pediatrician, therapist, or any licensed professional. The Ask feature uses AI to surface calm starting points grounded in our content, and it isn’t a person and not a doctor.

If you ever need real help›

The Digital Childhood is a calm starting point, not a replacement for professional care. If something feels bigger than a conversation, your pediatrician or therapist is who you want. And if you or your child is ever in crisis, 988 is the 24/7 lifeline by call or text in the US.

Know a parent who could use this?

This page is only for you. Tap a button below to send the monthly digest email or a push notification to everyone subscribed. If something isn't configured, the button will tell you what's missing.

Monthly digest

Sends the monthly email to every subscriber. Preview first to see exactly what they'll get.

Email subject line

Push notification

Sends a notification to everyone who's allowed reminders. Keep it short and warm.

Title Message

Submissions

Every feedback note and story a signed-in parent has sent, newest first. This is also emailed to hello@thedigitalchildhood.com as it comes in.

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Why this matters

Most parents think they're the only one dealing with this.

Every stage, a conversation.

What's happening at each stage and what to do about it.

0 of 0 actions checked off

Everything you have saved.

Ready when you actually need it.

All

Scripts

Context

Plans

Notes

My Notes

From our family & yours.

Real moments figuring out tech together, shared so you feel less alone in yours.

Our story · AI

She explained AI better than I ever could

"You're the doctor. AI is the nurse."

Our story · ChatGPT

My daughter asked to talk to ChatGPT at bedtime.

The conversation that changed how I explain AI.

Our story · AI Companion

My daughter asked to download an AI 'chat friend' she saw in a kids' game ad.

She was curious. Not lonely. Here's what that taught me.

Our story · School

I asked my kids' teachers if paper-and-pencil could be an option.

After reading the research, I made a small choice.

Tell us your story.

Stories from real parents make this place worth coming back to. Yours could be the one that helps someone else feel less alone.

What kind of story In your own words

Chelsea reads every story personally, and if we share yours we will always ask first.

Something else to do.

One idea at a time, indoors or out, for when you need an answer to “I’m bored” that isn’t the tablet.

How this works

Your next idea is one tap away.

Pick a filter or just hit Go and we will find something fun.

201 activities to discover

You don’t have to write the email.

It’s already written. So are the questions worth asking and the agenda if it gets that far. Change the parts that don’t sound like you and send it.

Print the School Action Kit

A free printable: the letter, the PTA agenda, and the questions to ask.

How this works

Fill in your details

Drop in your name and the letter is ready. Your school name is optional.

Pick your talking points

Check the research, and the letter rewrites in real time.

Send the packet

Copy the letter, share the PTA agenda, rally other parents in two taps.

Your packet is taking shape

Add your name below and your letter is ready. Everything else is optional.

1

Your Details

2

Pick Your Talking Points

Check the ones you want in your letter:

How is AI being handled in assignments, and what happens when a teacher thinks a student used it? Roughly how much of an average school day is spent on a device rather than on paper? Are there subjects or year groups where you have deliberately kept work on paper, and why? When devices are restricted, how do you handle the workarounds, like chatting in shared document comments? Is handwriting still taught and practised, and how much of the week does it get? What is the school’s position on reading longer texts on paper versus on a screen? Who decides which apps and platforms get used, and are parents told before a new one is introduced? What happens to the data these platforms collect about our kids, and can we see what is held? Is there someone at the school a parent can raise a technology concern with directly?

3

Your Letter, written for you

This is your letter. Tap any line to edit it in your own words.

Reset to the suggested letter

Add your name up top and your letter is ready to copy or share.

4

PTA Meeting Agenda

Questions to bring

16 to ask your school, already included in your packet

The final product

Your School Action Packet

Everything above bundled into one shareable text: your letter, the PTA agenda, the questions to ask, and links to the resources. Send it to other parents or paste it into an email to your school in one tap.

Add your name above first.

Research you can use

54%

of students used AI for school in the 2024-25 school year.

Source: RAND, 2026

82%

of teachers get no formal guidance on how to use AI in their work.

Source: Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation, 2026

34%

of teachers say their school has a policy on AI and academic integrity.

Source: RAND, 2026

States That Did This

Some states are already writing the rules.

OH

Ohio

FIRST

ID

Idaho

STATEWIDE

MD

Maryland

STATEWIDE

OK

Oklahoma

STATEWIDE

VA

Virginia

STATEWIDE

Ohio became the first state to require every school district to adopt an AI policy, with a deadline of July 2026. Idaho, Maryland, Oklahoma and Virginia have passed laws that put state AI guidance and district policies in place too. Asking your school where it stands is a fair question.

More Resources

Schools Beyond Screens

National movement for phone-free schools

Tech-Safe Learning

Safe tech practices for schools

Common Sense Media

Age-based media ratings and digital citizenship

Wait Until 8th

Pledge to delay smartphones until a later grade

Phone-Free Schools Movement

Parents and educators pushing for bell-to-bell phone-free policies

The Digital Childhood, calm guidance for raising kids in a digital world