In this insightful follow-up episode, Dr. Mona is joined by Bill Brady—CEO of Troomi Wireless and a father of five—for a powerful conversation about the realities of kids and phones. They discuss the benefits of tech, the very real risks of social media, and how parents can introduce devices with intention. From self-esteem and screen-time addiction to practical steps for safe tech use, this episode is a must-listen for any parent navigating the digital age.

What We Cover:

• The pros and cons of giving kids phones

• Why it’s not about a specific age, but developmental readiness

• The impact of social media on teen mental health and self-esteem

• Why kids today are facing an “always on” culture of bullying

• How to safely ease children into tech (and what that actually looks like)

• The importance of parental controls, gradual access, and media literacy

• Dr. Mona’s take on being a content creator—and the mental health toll it can take

Want more? Enjoy the full episode at ⁠⁠PedsDocTalk.com⁠⁠

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00;00;00;06 – 00;00;20;10

Dr. Mona

Welcome to the PedsDocTalk Podcast, and welcome to the follow up. I’m Doctor Mona, your pediatrician and mom friend. This is your Monday parenting. Pick me up a little moment of calm, clarity and oh good. It’s not just me to start your week. Whether you’re digging a charger out of the couch cushions or fighting the urge to say no phones until you’re 30.

 

00;00;20;13 – 00;00;42;29

Dr. Mona

Today we’re throwing it back to one of my favorite chats with Bill Brady, data five, tech entrepreneur and CEO of Truly Wireless. Bill has lived the reality of raising kids in a world that’s basically one endless scroll, and he’s here to help us think differently about introducing phones to kids. In this episode, we dive into why being intentional matters way more than following the crowd and how to start with safety first steps like talk and text only models.

 

00;00;43;02 – 00;01;00;12

Dr. Mona

We also get into the hidden risks of social media, like the erosion of self-esteem and gratitude, and why protecting kids real world childhood matters now more than ever. Let’s get into it.

 

00;01;00;14 – 00;01;18;01

Dr. Mona

So from the research in this field of technology, mental health, as well as your experience being a parent to five children, what do you see the benefits of having a son and what would be some concerns? You see, with a child having access to a phone?

 

00;01;18;04 – 00;01;41;26

Bill Brady

The benefits side? I think that the first benefit is selfish for parents, right? It’s the convenience of being able to reach our kids. You know, when I was a kid, we didn’t have phones, right? And somehow we all survived and everything. Everything was fine. But, you know, we’ve kind of got a culture now where there’s this high need sensitivity for parents of.

 

00;01;42;02 – 00;01;59;02

Bill Brady

I want to know where my kids are at. I want to be able to see on a map where they are and know that they’re okay. If anything were to go wrong or they had a problem or even just a scheduling snafu. I want them to be able to reach me or I need to be able to reach them.

 

00;01;59;02 – 00;02;22;01

Bill Brady

And that’s that’s really, really a convenient thing. But there’s there’s safety. There are safety issues there as well. If you think of benefits, I think there are a ton of learning and preparation for the future. Style benefits. All kids are going to use technology as adults. The jobs they may have as teenagers will require them to use technology.

 

00;02;22;01 – 00;02;50;28

Bill Brady

So as parents now we have this added responsibility of helping them to use technology with discipline and responsibly. So we have this need to help them advance into additional levels of of responsibility as their needs warrant and as their their maturity warrants. So there’s a lot of upside, but like you said, we have to be concerned about the risks as well.

 

00;02;51;00 – 00;03;23;09

Bill Brady

And I categorize those into two different types of risk. There’s the obvious ones. Every parent in America would agree that they don’t want their kids consuming pornography or other inappropriate content. They want to keep their kids away from bullies. And bullying happens now. 24 over seven you think of what social media does to take the schoolyard bully, and all of a sudden that individuals reach is thousands of people, and it never turns off.

 

00;03;23;11 – 00;03;53;23

Bill Brady

All right. And so there’s a risk there. And, and then predators. It’s absolutely disgusting. You know, you think of some of the research shows 500,000 active online child predators right now, and they’re using seemingly innocuous means of reaching kids and grooming them into some, you know, terrible, terrible, dangerous situations. So those are the obvious things, you know?

 

00;03;53;23 – 00;04;25;27

Bill Brady

So at its core, we say, let’s create an environment where kids are safe from those things, but the less obvious risks are just as important. And a lot of those stemmed from social media and the stress, anxiety and depression that we’re now seeing spiking in our young people. And so much of that ties back to, you know, social media screen time in general, getting less sleep because of screens.

 

00;04;26;00 – 00;04;32;03

Bill Brady

And we’re seeing an epidemic. It’s an absolute youth mental health care crisis.

 

00;04;32;05 – 00;04;49;23

Dr. Mona

Oh, absolutely. I mean, you’re bringing up hard hitting things that are realities in this day and age. And, you know, you went back into like how it seems like a simpler time when we were children. For me, as a pediatrician, I very much see on a regular basis the depression aspect that you mentioned, the anxiety aspect that social media can cause.

 

00;04;49;23 – 00;05;15;23

Dr. Mona

And so the depression is there, the anxiety, but also the plummeting self-esteem. You know, that we see and I have so many teenagers coming in that are feeling bad about themselves because of what they’ve seen on social, whether it’s the bullying, whether it’s, someone has a lot more followers, whether it’s someone looks so beautiful because of filters or a gentleman is much more muscular or big because of AI technology.

 

00;05;15;23 – 00;05;35;14

Dr. Mona

And, it’s really scary, like you said, because back in the day, people existed, you know, there was bullies. You were right. It was very tough. But it didn’t follow you home. You went home and it was home and it was a safe place. But now you get on your computer or your iPhone or your cell phone and it’s it is a stereo world.

 

00;05;35;16 – 00;06;07;13

Bill Brady

You know. Thank you. You know, what are the things you just called out, I don’t think can be overstated. And that’s the effect of social media on self-esteem. And confidence in the struggle is real for adults too. It’s not just a kid thing, but kids, especially because of their developing brains, especially susceptible to getting into this rut of constantly looking at what everyone else has, what everyone else is doing, how everyone else looks, where everyone else is going on vacation.

 

00;06;07;15 – 00;06;35;07

Bill Brady

And of course, they’re just seeing the curated version of everyone’s lives. But it’s really easy to get into that mode of I don’t have enough, I’m not enough, I’m not getting enough, I’m not strong enough, whatever those things are. And in that constant comparison robs us of gratitude. Dude, first of all, you know, if you spend your life comparing yourself to other people, all of a sudden gratitude goes out the window.

 

00;06;35;14 – 00;07;02;21

Bill Brady

Yeah. And I think, you know, gratitude and the recognition of what we do have is fundamental to real happiness. And the statistics show it. In fact, there’s, the Pew Research Center did a study with teenagers, and 73% of teenagers recognize, they said in the survey that they believe social media harms their mental health. 73% of the kids themselves.

 

00;07;02;28 – 00;07;03;05

Dr. Mona

I.

 

00;07;03;05 – 00;07;16;27

Bill Brady

Know are recognizing that. Yeah. Once you get into that habit and the dopamine hit to coming from. Yes it’s hard to it’s hard to say I don’t want to do that anymore. It’s really hard to step away from it.

 

00;07;17;00 – 00;07;46;08

Dr. Mona

Listen, this is and you said it perfectly. It’s not just for children. I mean, I am a content creator, and I. I’ve become this, like, role that anytime I see an up and coming content creator that, like, I really love and they’re growing like they they go viral, right? I immediately send them a message and I say, I’m so proud of you for going viral, but I need you to watch for mental health, because with becoming viral comes the mental health hit, the dopamine hit, the desire for more, the people pleasing, the fact that you are going to get a lot more negativity when you go viral.

 

00;07;46;08 – 00;08;06;14

Dr. Mona

I’ve been there and I know that impact it has on me as it I’m, you know, I’m a 38 year old at the time of this reporting and I even get sad. I even get depressed. Now we think about the children that, like you said, that they’re developing brain and not even just the developing brain. We know that teenagers because of where their cognition is, they rely heavily on what other people think.

 

00;08;06;20 – 00;08;34;16

Dr. Mona

Even if we want to tell them, yeah, think or don’t care, don’t care about what your friend says their way, their brain develops because of just human evolution and how we evolve as, adults and human beings. They care and we can say all we want not to care, but they’re going to care. And so when you add that sort of developing brain that that desire for what is everyone else doing and how come I’m not good enough and you set them up for failure in terms of this, you know, not being mindful.

 

00;08;34;16 – 00;08;53;25

Dr. Mona

And social media is not the mindful spot that I want people to be. And it’s like the antithesis of being mindful everything about it. And it’s like that dopamine hit of the quick video form, you know, like the fact that now with TikTok, everything’s getting shorter. We can’t even like long form video. People are getting bored because it’s not fast enough for their dopamine hit.

 

00;08;53;29 – 00;08;55;26

Dr. Mona

It’s kind of scary, you know?

 

00;08;55;29 – 00;08;57;00

Bill Brady

It really is.

 

00;08;57;02 – 00;09;09;09

Dr. Mona

And so I love this. When would you say, would be a good time to introduce a phone? And how can we do that? You know, in terms of making it, providing this balance, like what we’re talking about today.

 

00;09;09;12 – 00;09;34;23

Bill Brady

So I think it’s got to be done with the utmost of intentionality. There’s no one specific age where I would say this is the age, right? Because every family circumstance is different. Every child’s needs are different. And in very practical needs are different. And every child’s maturity level is different. I think it’s got to be done on a child by child basis, even within a family.

 

00;09;34;25 – 00;10;03;04

Bill Brady

You know, even within a family. I don’t think there’s a at this age you get a phone call because kids are kids are different. That age is definitely getting younger because so few families have home phones now. So if you want your kids to be able to be at home once they’re to an age where they can be at home alone, or when they can be babysitting for your family or another family, they have to have a device that’s just for safety.

 

00;10;03;04 – 00;10;25;20

Bill Brady

They have to have a way to to call the fire department if they need to. We also see the age coming down because of expectations, you know, set by schools. You know, where more and more schools have kids in digital learning platforms. And, you know, you submit your assignments on devices, you check your grades on devices, so that that age is coming down.

 

00;10;25;23 – 00;11;00;20

Bill Brady

The biggest advice I give parents is be intentional about it. I always say that, you know, just because everyone else is doing it was never the right reason to do anything right. So look at look at your child and their maturity level and their needs and make, make, an intentional decision. But in that process, there are some steps that we can take as parents to mitigate the potential of the phone or technology becoming the default for how life is lived.

 

00;11;00;28 – 00;11;29;06

Bill Brady

And that’s what we’re trying to avoid. You know, you don’t want to take your kid from not having a phone to being on a phone 95% of the time, you know? So so that’s where we say ease them into it. And give them age appropriate technology that meets specific needs. So for a younger kid, starting with talk in text only, they don’t even need picture messages to begin with.

 

00;11;29;08 – 00;11;54;12

Bill Brady

Start with the most basic and make sure that that that initial ability to talk in text is completely safe. For example, in our product, we’ve built a bulletproof safe listing system where if someone is not in the child’s contact book, which is managed by the parent, they literally cannot talk or text with that kid. It’s it’s not possible.

 

00;11;54;14 – 00;12;36;20

Bill Brady

And so you know that that way you can say to your child, hey, here are the five, 1030, whatever the number is for your family, here are the people that you can talk to. Let me know, you know, and your child can add someone. But then you get to approve that contact, as a period. So you start with that level of safety and then teach them about how to use group messaging with the right etiquette, teach them about what pictures are appropriate to send and not send, and introduce, you know, picture messaging and step them through the addition of new technology as they’re trained, as they’re ready and as you can help them

 

00;12;36;20 – 00;13;07;04

Bill Brady

develop discipline and then look at adding apps that are safe. And the last thing that we want to do is put a device in the child’s hand and say, okay, now life is just virtual and it’s only on devices. No, we want the child to be a child, right? To enjoy childhood and to have the in-person and outdoor adventures that make childhood so wonderful and rewarding.

 

00;13;07;07 – 00;13;30;25

Dr. Mona

Oh, I love it, and I really appreciate you taking a developmental approach, because I do see sometimes people put an age minimum like, hey, 12 years old, like, let’s get phones, right? Because that’s the age. I would say, I agree with you that it is a circumstantial situation. Especially knowing that everyone’s families different and you brought up that everyone’s development is different.

 

00;13;30;27 – 00;13;52;06

Dr. Mona

And that’s your follow up, just a small dose of the real relatable and eye opening conversations we love to have here. If you smiled, nodded, or had an moment, go ahead and download, follow and share this episode with a friend. Let’s grow this village together for more everyday parenting wins and real talk. Hang out with us on Instagram at the PedsDocTalk podcast.

 

00;13;52;14 – 00;14;07;28

Dr. Mona

Want more? Dive into the full episode and more at PedsDocTalk.com. Because parenting is better with support. And remember, consistency is key. Humor is medicine and follow ups are everything. I’m Doctor Mona, see you next time for your next dose.