Grading new tools from Apple, Google to fight phone addiction

APPLE this week finally showed off its solution to help us use our iPhones less often.

At its Worldwide Developers Conference, the company presented more advanced parental controls and unveiled new system features that let you monitor how much you’re using your phone.

The iPhone maker’s new features followed a January letter from shareholders JANA Partners and CalSters that asked the company to build better controls to help curb tech use. Google recently announced new features to limit screen time and monitor use on Android devices too.

Both companies focus on offering choices to consumers in the form of more granular settings. The question is whether these features are enough to help us help ourselves.

The group of shareholders who questioned Apple’s lack of controls said they were happy with the company’s announcements and focus on kids.

“You can debate what to do about adults whose brains are fully developed, but we think the long-term benefits of having kids growing up with healthier digital habits instilled by their parents and other caregivers based on their own beliefs cannot be overstated,” said Charles Penner, a partner at JANA Partners, in a statement.

We also asked experts on the screen time debate for preliminary grades on what they’ve seen from Apple and Google so far. Here’s what they said:

Delaney Ruston, internal medicine physician and maker of the film “Screenagers” Apple Grade: AGoogle Grade: C Ruston gave Apple an A- for its efforts, particularly when it comes to limiting certain apps. “Parents will be able to control the apps they do not want their children using during school hours, such as Instagram and Snapchat, while keeping others on their phones during school, such as Quizlet (an app that mimics flashcards),” Ruston said.

She would, however, like to see Apple allow multiple accounts on a single device - which would allow parents sharing iPads with their kids to change settings for each person - and for the screen time controls to be enabled automatically, to push people to use them.

“I think the biggest issue is going to be getting everyone to actually take the reins and set limits on their kid’s phone. But this is a huge step forward,” she said.

Ruston gave Google’s Android controls a C, judging both the new screen time limits introduced last month, as well as family controls introduced last year. “Although Google’s Family Link offers many of the same family settings as Apple’s forthcoming operating system, Family Link allows kids over 13 to unsubscribe and manage their own time choices,” she said, which means the controls exclude teens. She added that the Android controls also don’t apply to Chromebooks, which are often issued by schools. “The main Apple device at school is an iPad, and Apple’s new system will cover iPads.”

Jean Twenge, psychologist and author of “iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy - and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood.” Apple Grade: AGoogle Grade: BTwenge said that the Apple features are the “types of controls parents have been desperate to have,” particularly when it comes to setting time aside for sleep. “I still think it’s better for people to keep their phones out of their bedrooms and buy an alarm clock, but this is a good compromise solution for people who really want to use their phones as alarm,” she said.

For adults, however, Twenge said she would have liked to have seen one thing: Apple giving “adults something similar to the parental controls that shuts down apps” when time’s up, rather than just give them a reminder when they’ve hit their limit. “It would be better if it actually turned off - a reminder isn’t always enough,” she said in an email.

Google gets the same criticism, she said, and doesn’t have the same focus on kids. “I have the same concern about the features announced by Google recently, which were just reminders, without the option of the app actually shutting down,” she said. — Washington Post.