STUDY: Child Phone Usage Causing Dissatisfaction Among Nebraska Families
by Olivia White
Nebraska children have some of the most uncontrolled phone usage of any children in the country, and the state has one of the highest dissatisfaction rates among parents.
The Institute for Family Studies recently released a study mapping American parenting with the goal of showing how parenting varies across the country. The study surveyed almost 24,000 parents of over 40,000 children in the final months of 2025 and found large regional differences in parenting styles.
Nebraska Ranks High in Childhood Screen Time
The study uses a decile scale of 1-10, with ten being the highest value. In ease of parenting, Nebraska ranks at the bottom with just a score of one. Nebraska ranks at the highest value of ten when it comes to uncontrolled smartphone usage, and an eight for a high-tech childhood.
The study found that this high usage of screens correlated with worse mental health scores for teens, but also low parent well-being scores.
“This suggests that uncontrolled smartphone use may exacerbate problems in households that are already struggling, while households with very happy parents may have buffering effects that limit harms,” the study said.
The study noted that screen time for many parents is “inevitable” as “it really is easier to offload more parenting time onto Netflix than it is to deal with the cuts, scrapes, and broken bones independent kids bring home.”
“The latter really are stressful for parents. The tradeoffs are real,” it added.
(Graph courtesy of the Institute for Family Studies)
Nebraska also shows low rates of support for parents, which can correlate with finding parenting difficult. The state ranks at the bottom across the country for partner support, only scoring one.
Nebraska scored five in community support, showing there may be more help outside the home than from within. The overall parent experience score, which takes into account these categories as well as warmth and joy of parenting, puts Nebraska at only one.
While the state has high amounts of screen time, Nebraska children do get a large amount of unsupervised play, and they favor independent play more than other states, overall, rating at the top of the scale for independence. Nebraskan childhoods are also full of socialization, with most time spent socializing outside of school hours.
“The benefits of allowing children to become more independent and resilient are real as well,” the study said. “Our own survey also finds mental health benefits for children whose upbringing is more resilient.”
One of the most surprising correlations that was discovered was that states with the top marks in the Resilient Childhood Score tend to have a worse Parental Experience Score. The study found that parents who put in effort to have their children experience autonomous, independent, and social childhoods tend to feel more isolated and that parenting is more difficult.
The study found that to continue creating this childhood in our current American culture, parents need societal support, and that varies greatly by region.
Lawmakers Take on Screen Time
The study says policymakers should work with parents and civil society to support the burden of parenting and create opportunities to play. Recently, we have seen Nebraska work to put laws in place to limit screen time for children. In 2025, the state enacted a legislative package to limit screen time, avoid social media addiction, and restrict phone usage while in school.
The Age-Appropriate Online Design Code Act requires online services to prioritize the privacy and well-being of users under 18 – allowing parents to set time limits and pause notifications during nighttime and school hours. This law is currently in effect, but will start being enforced on July 1.
The Parental Right in Social Media Act restricts access to social media and gives parents control over accounts for minors under 18. This law also gives parents the right to revoke consent and would remove the child’s account from the social media platform, and allows parents to restrict messages, posts, and time on the app.
Cellphones are now also restricted on school property, with the policies required to be in place for this current school year after the law passed in May of 2025.
These laws are enforced by the Nebraska Attorney General. Potential civil penalties come at a high cost of up to $50,000 per violation for online platforms failing to comply and up to $2,500 per violation for breaches of the Parental Right Social Media Act.
— Olivia White is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel. She previously was a staff writer for The Northside Sun.