★Smartphones and devices are reshaping childhood. Hold the Phone empowers parents to rescue their kids from digital overload.
★Set firm limits, walk back harmful tech use, and end daily battles over screen time by reclaiming parental authority, modeling healthy tech habits, and prioritizing in-person interactions.

No one else is coming to save your kid from their screen addiction. That’s your job!

Smartphones are reshaping childhood. Parents are well positioned to set the limits that kids desperately need.

In Hold the Phone, author and speaker Katherine Martinko delivers fresh, empowering ideas for reducing screen time, breaking device dependence, and restoring a healthy play-based childhood in the digital age. Child and teen tech habits don’t form by accident—they crystallize under the expectations, rules, and examples set at home. And while it’s easy to blame Big Tech, lagging schools, and outdated policies, parents remain the ultimate gatekeepers of screen access.

This book equips and encourages you to:

Set firm, realistic screen limits that actually work
Reduce smartphone use and device dependence at home
Walk back tech use that is out of control or was introduced prematurely
End daily battles over scrolling and gaming
Model healthier tech habits as a parent
Replace screen time with play, independence, and real-world connection
Develop community that makes offline play more accessible
Build a family culture that protects childhood from digital overload.
You don’t have to wait for schools, lawmakers, or tech companies to act. You have the power to resist and make change at home, starting today. Childhood is short. The real world is amazing. It’s time to hold the phone—and give kids the life they deserve.

Katherine Martinko is a columnist for The Globe and Mail and a leading voice in the movement to reclaim childhood from screens. A speaker for Jonathan Haidt’s Anxious Generation campaign, she shares her expertise internationally through talks, her popular newsletter The Analog Family, and appearances on national TV, radio, and podcasts.

Her writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, CBC, Global News, Motherly, and After Babel. A former senior editor at Dotdash Meredith, she has also worked with Martha Stewart, Allrecipes, and Treehugger.

Introduction

Part I: Parents
— It’s Not (Entirely) Your Fault
— Listen to Your Gut
— You Can Change Your Mind
— Set New Rules
— Be Choosy
— Fight Fear
— Reject Surveillance
— Ignore the Influencers
— Technoference
— Hold Back

Part II: Households
— Design for the Life You Want
— Fill the Void
— Cultivate Usefulness
— Build Strong Play Habitats
— Say Yes to Sleepovers
— Mark the Passage of Time
— The Real FaceTime
— Take Analog Vacations
— Take Fewer Pictures
— It’s OK to Do Less

Part III: Community
— Kids Included
— Bring Back Parental Solidarity
— Teens Need Playgrounds, Too
— Host More Dinners
— Don’t Show, Just Tell
— When Other Kids Have Phones
— Be the Neighbour You Wish You Had
— What Schools Can Do
— Bring Back Teenage Babysitters
— Away to Camp

Conclusion: It’s Your Moment. Go Boldly.