Florida will ban social media for children under 14 starting in January, following concerns about its impact on mental health.
The American Psychological Association said social media is inherently unsafe for children.
A new movement is underway to prevent what experts call an epidemic of mental illness directly connected to social media and cell phones.
Rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide have more than doubled in children over the last ten years. Some parents are now taking the " Wait Until 8th " pledge to protect their children.
Amelia Smith, a middle school cheerleader with many friends, is different from her peers because she does not have a cell phone or social media.
"Well, at first she said I would get one in sixth grade, but it didn't really end up that way. She said I have to wait until eighth," Amelia said.
"I knew she was going to be very disappointed, but I could not think of any good reason to give her the phone. I saw all the dangers of the internet, the adult world, the fact that social interaction, person to person, is so important, especially for self-esteem and for future conversations and life and all those things," said Amelia's mother.
Her mother made the difficult and unpopular decision to wait until after eighth grade to get Amelia a phone.
"With middle school girls, confidence is definitely a problem. So why would I give her something that would even make it more likely to have lower self-esteem? I tell her all the time I am giving her the gift of mental health," she adds.
A National Institutes of Health study finds a significant difference in the brains of children exposed to smartphones, tablets, or videos for more than seven hours a day.
"It is taking away the play-based childhood. Kids are sucked into their bedrooms on their phones. Certainly, cell phone use in younger kids tends to allow for unwanted pornography exposure, changes in behavior, sleep deprivation, and is an academic distraction," said school nurse Jessica Benson.
That is why Canterbury School in Fort Myers is joining hundreds of schools across the country supporting the "Wait Until 8th" pledge. Families in each grade level pledge they will not provide a smartphone until their child is through eighth grade.
"So what 'Wait Until 8th' does is band parents together who are like-minded, who can then alleviate some of the pressure by joining together and saying you're not the only one. There are other kids at school and other kids in your class," said a school representative.
The idea is there is strength in numbers, and the goal is to get at least ten families in every grade to sign up.
"Now I would say it starts much younger where there is like an obsession almost," said Lizzy Moon, who sees younger patients coming into her DNA mental health clinics suffering from anxiety and depression.
"It's a good thing kids want to be part of something. They want to feel good and connected to their peers. That's great. But the way that they're doing it now is through these different apps and different phones that rewire their brain. And so they feel bad if they don't have all of the things that, you know, the likes and these artificial things that the phones have created or tech has created, and this is all bad," she adds.
Lizzy is treating more and more children addicted to their phones. Kids being treated for depression and anxiety rose by 50 percent from 2010 to 2019, and suicide rates rose 48 percent.
For mom Bree Smith, it was not an easy choice, but one she knew she had to make.
"It's being present, having conversations, and learning those skills. How to interact with your friends not in front of a screen. Those were some of the big ones. I just don't feel the internet is very safe," Bree said.
As for Amelia, it makes it easier to know she's not alone, saying, "So it was kind of annoying, but it's okay because two of my friends aren't getting a phone until the end of eighth either."
Parents are concerned about being able to get in touch with their children. There are non-internet-based phones and watches so you can still communicate with your children.
A lot of this centers around a groundbreaking book, "The Anxious Generation." Its message is that we are overprotecting our children in the real world and under-protecting them online.
If you are interested in signing the pledge or bringing it to your child's school, visit waituntil8th.org .