Book
NewScreen-Proof Family
The Digital Parenting Guide — From First Phone to AI Safety, Age by Age
A guide to raising kids through phones, social media and AI. The wager of the book: your relationship with your kid does more to protect them than any screen-time limit.
Also available at ebooks.com · Bookshop.org · Indigo · Fable · Glose · RedShelf · Everand
$6.99 $2.99 on Kindle
216 pages · Published May 25, 2026
“This guide is totally different because it actually tells you step-by-step what to do instead of just saying screens are bad. I love how it breaks things down for different ages, so you know exactly when to give them a phone and how to set rules that actually stick.”
Your 8-year-old wants a tablet. Your 11-year-old wants a phone. Your 14-year-old is on three apps you've never heard of — one of them an AI chatbot that talks back.
It runs on habits and on how you set up the house. Lists of bans break the day your kid finds the workaround. What holds up is smaller and duller: who charges their phone where, what happens at the dinner table, what you say the first time they show you something that scared them. That part outlasts whichever app is in the news.
What makes it different
- An age-by-age plan: what to introduce and what to hold back at each stage, with the milestones and the red flags to watch for.
- Habits that don't depend on which app is popular this year, so they still work after you switch phones or the school changes its rules.
- Word-for-word scripts for the hard talks: first phones, social media, cyberbullying, online predators, AI chatbot dependency, and the 'everyone else has it' one.
- A Parental Controls field guide — router-level, device-level and monitoring tools, organised by age.
- Neurodivergence runs through every chapter, because ADHD, autism and screens don't behave the way generic advice assumes.
What’s inside
Named systems, and what each does.
The Family Tech Contract
An agreement you write with your kid and both sign, with templates for every stage and a schedule to revisit it.
The 30-Day Phone Rollout
A day-by-day plan for your child's first smartphone, plus a 30-Day Reset if you're catching up.
The Family Safe Word
One low-tech rule that defends against AI voice-cloning and deepfake emergency scams.
The Mirror Check
The uncomfortable research, turned into a habit: the strongest predictor of your kid's screen use is yours.
The AI Pause
A reflex for chatbots, AI overviews and deepfakes: stop and ask, “how would I check this?”
Who it’s for
For parents and guardians of kids 0 to 18, plus grandparents, pediatricians, teachers and counsellors. First tablet still in the box, or a phone already under the pillow? Start at the chapter for the age you've got.
What readers say
“Screen-Proof Family is a well-researched, thorough guide for parents raising children in today's digital world. It offers practical advice for every stage of childhood, covering everything from managing tablets with toddlers to navigating social media, smartphones, and AI with teens. The information is easy to understand and backed by thoughtful research, making it a valuable resource for any family. As a teacher, I found the sections on AI especially insightful. They gave me practical ideas and important discussion topics that I plan to bring into my classroom to help students better understand and responsibly use this rapidly evolving technology. Whether you're a parent, educator, or caregiver, this book provides useful strategies for helping kids develop healthy, balanced relationships with technology.”
April C Saunders · via Amazon
“As a parent, I've often worried about how much technology and AI are becoming part of my kids' daily lives. What I appreciated about this guide is that it doesn't just warn about the risks—it offers practical, step-by-step advice on how to navigate them. I especially liked the age-based recommendations, which made it easier to understand when to introduce devices and how to create realistic boundaries that families can actually maintain. The book is straightforward, easy to read, and full of practical suggestions that feel relevant to modern parenting. It left me feeling more informed and more confident about helping my children develop a healthy relationship with technology. A very useful resource for parents raising kids in the digital age.”
Alejandra Flores · via Amazon
“This guide is totally different because it actually tells you step-by-step what to do instead of just saying screens are bad. I love how it breaks things down for different ages, so you know exactly when to give them a phone and how to set rules that actually stick.”
ClementReads · via Amazon
Get the book
Available in several formats. Read it wherever you like.
Also available at ebooks.com · Bookshop.org · Indigo · Fable · Glose · RedShelf · Everand
$6.99 $2.99 on Kindle
Read it, or thinking about it? Tell me what you think →
Also by Max Hartman
The Relocation Companion
Everything Nobody Tells You About Moving to Another Country
A phase-by-phase guide to moving abroad that handles the visa forms and the kitchen-floor breakdown in the same chapter.
$6.99 $2.99 on Kindle