HANG UP AND PLAY: The anti-anxiety experiment: Friends without phones, adult-free camping.

After interviewing Haidt for The Sunday Times, Decca Aitkenhead, a British mother, devised an experiment. She’d get her sons, 13 and 14 years old, and their friends to go smartphone-free, except for one hour a day, for a month. Then she’d send them camping, without adults, for a weekend.

The kids locked their smartphone in a kSafe time-lock container, which could be set to release for just one hour a day. “For the other 23 hours they would use a Light Phone, an American wi-fi-enabled device designed to allow calls, texts and group chats, with an alarm, calculator, basic music player, directions, calendar, note/voice memo — and nothing else.”

None of the teens suffered from anxiety or depression. The boys played sports. The girls had busy extracurricular schedules. All had parents who limited their screen time.

Plus this: “‘The no-adult aspect is literally the dream to us,’ said Albie.”

Kids need to be kids without so many screens or grownups around.