IRL Kids was inspired into existence by The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Heidt.

In the book, Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood" began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the "phone-based childhood" in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this "great rewiring of childhood" has interfered with children's social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the "collective action problems" that trap us, and then proposes four simple reforms that might set us free.

We highly recommend reading this book, found here. An article, written by the author himself, can be found here.

Further, Haidt has built a comprehensive “Take Action” guide for those who want to do more than just sign a pledge. He acknowledges it can be hard for one person, one family, or one school to swim against the tide of ever-increasing screen time, but if we act together, we can turn the tide.