“So, can I have a phone?”

“All my friends have a phone, when can I have one?”

Your kid has just asked you for a phone, and you’re freaking out.

They’ve been bugging you to buy them a phone for months. Maybe you even got them a phone already, and now you’re not so sure it was a good decision. You spend more time fighting about their phone than talking to each other.

What are they doing on there?

You’ve considered getting your kid a phone, but you’re scared—they’ll have access to literally the entire world at the swipe of a screen.

You’re worried about cyberbullying, naughty pictures, and endless text messages.

You don’t want to raise a screen-addicted kid who has trouble looking people in the eye.

Phonewise Boot Camp is a 4-week online course that prepares you and your child for their first phone.

In Phonewise Boot Camp, you’ll learn:

• How to know if your child is ready for a phone and what level of access is appropriate for their age.
• To have calm and open discussions about social skills, etiquette, and setting up healthy boundaries.
• Simple and practical tools to use right away, like scripts for how to stay curious and handle conflicts, a phone contract between you and your kid.
• How to be a positive digital role model and how to show your kids empathy.
• That the idea of a phone isn’t scary anymore—you’re ready to get curious about your kids’ interactions with technology.

Feel confident you’re teaching your child to make smart decisions on their phone, even when you’re not there.

Inside the Phonewise Curriculum

Module 1 | Assessing your family's relationship with technology

You'll evaluate your personal relationship with tech, your child’s existing digital life, their key areas of strength and difficulty, and how these affect their ability to manage a phone.

Module 2 | What makes a successful cellphone communicator?

Understand the crucial skills your child needs to be a successful phone user, such as empathy, conflict resolution, setting boundaries and impulse control, and how to encourage those skills in your child.

Module 3 | Co-creating a plan – Mentoring vs. Monitoring

You'll learn the difference between mentoring and monitoring and whether you should spy. You'll also work with your child to create a phone contract that outlines boundaries and responsible phone use.

Module 4 | Pulling it all together and launch experiments

We'll cover what to do if you see something questionable on your kid’s phone, how to handle conflicts, who your kids should communicate with and, finally, why you shouldn’t be freaking out about launching your new phone user.

I’m Devorah Heitner, and I support parents seeking advice on how to help children thrive in a digital world. I’m here to take the fear out of this emotionally-charged topic and help you guide your kids toward empathy, kindness, and integrity.

My book, Screenwise: Helping Kids Thrive (and Survive) in Their Digital World gives parents new insights into kids’ digital world, so they can stop feeling afraid and become tech-positive parents.

Since earning my Ph.D. in Media/Technology and Society from Northwestern University, I’ve been working with communities, schools and companies across the United States and beyond. I speak to schools, organizations, and corporations, lead workshops, and consult with educators on their toughest concerns in teaching kids to use tech in a smart way. My writing about kids and tech has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and CNN Opinion. I am delighted to be raising my own teenager and I live with her family in Chicagoland. You can follow me on Twitter @Devorahheitner and on Instagram @devorahheitnerphd.