In One Year, He Watched 16,000 YouTube Videos—During Class! Here’s What His Mom Did About It.

Kids’ Brains & Screens helped Colin break his screen addiction. Now, he wants to help other kids do the same.

For those of you who listen to our ScreenStrong Families podcast, you may already know the story of Colin Boyd. He and his mother, Andrea, were guests on the show recently, and their interview was so powerful that I had to share part of it with you on our Substack.

So many parents I meet are worried that if they take the screens away, their child will hate them and never forgive them. And I can see why parents have that worry. After all, your child may literally be screaming the words, “I hate you, and I’ll never forgive you!”

What is so apparent from Colin’s story, though, is that couldn’t be further from the truth. What you will read in the following transcripts and hear in Colin’s voice if you listen to the episode itself is that Colin has an immense love and respect for his mother. Now that the dust has settled and he has made a full return to life in the real world, he sees the benefits for himself— and he doesn’t want to go back. In fact, he wants to help lawmakers and families save more kids who are struggling with screen addiction.

What’s the secret to Colin’s success (besides a set of parents who were willing to do what was right for their son)? Education. During the initial screen detox, Andrea and Colin (along with his dad and sister), read our Kids’ Brains & Screens (KBS) book aloud. As you’ll read, that book had a big impact on Colin and his understanding of what was happening to his brain while he was on screens at school.

Though Andrea used our original KBS Student curriculum when Colin was going through his detox, know that we just released a condensed Home Edition that was designed with this exact situation in mind. If you are looking to make real, lasting changes in your home, Kids’ Brains & Screens Home Edition will be your greatest ally, giving your kids the why behind your decision to make screen limits something you can bond over instead of fight about.

A little more about Colin’s story…

Colin’s mother, Andrea, was always mindful about Colin’s access to screens throughout his elementary school years. Once Colin entered middle school, though, he was given an iPad to carry with him all day.

Though Andrea didn’t allow this device to come home with Colin, having unmonitored access to it throughout the school day, from bell to bell, did its damage. In just one school year, Colin watched 16,000 YouTube videos on his iPad—all while he was supposed to be paying attention to his lessons.

Here’s what Colin said about those years on the iPad:

“I felt very depressed in sixth and seventh grade. I couldn't really feel emotion. It was always the iPad, and there was no other feeling. Even family came after the iPad. I can't really put into words how ‘sucking in’ it felt.”

After the seventh grade, Andrea opted Colin out from internet-based learning, which means he was perhaps the only kid in the school without an iPad on him at all times.

Here’s what Colin has to say about that initial detox period:

“It wasn't easy to just pull the addiction away… It's like saying there's this person addicted to a drug, and then someone says, ‘Hey, I'm gonna take this drug away from you.’ And so it's a really hard adjustment, and it was very hard to switch to pen and paper because those skills were rusty. My handwriting was absolutely terrible, but just with a couple weeks of handwriting, it drastically improved. And now I can read books.”

Andrea rode that wave with Colin, though. She guided him through this time not only by spending more time together but by taking the time to educate him about why she was making this difficult decision to opt him out of Ed Tech (yes, that’s an option for your student!). Andrea knew how toxic tech was affecting her son’s brain, and she wanted him to know it, too. That’s why she bought Kids’ Brains & Screens.

Together, their family sat and read lesson after lesson about how screen overuse affects overall brain development as well as physical, mental, and emotional health. It’s a time Colin remembers vividly.

Here’s what Colin has to say about Kids’ Brains & Screens:

“It's actually really good. I've learned a lot about how the brain structure is completely changed on tech… The dopamine and the cortisol and all that stuff. It's the roller coaster. I still remember that [from Kids’ Brains & Screens]. It's just very good writing. I can read it for hours.”

A year post-detox, Colin says he is feeling much happier. He says he enjoys school for the first time in a long time. He got involved in theater and is a proud “theater kid,” and reading all the testimonies of the kids in the KBS book, Colin wanted to give his own testimony. In fact, he submitted his testimony to the Iowa State Legislature.

Here’s what Colin wrote to his local lawmakers:

“We are aware that phones have been a topic of opposing views in recent years, and they should have been taken care of years ago. Here's why, from a kid's perspective, who is living in this situation every day at school. During my sixth-grade year, I was highly addicted to YouTube. I watched thousands of YouTube videos during my school day and essentially skipped the entire year of school. In this same year, I was told by another student to take ‘the gay test’ online using my school device. I did, and was brainwashed for months thinking that I might be gay due to the survey's influence on me. In seventh grade, I was shown a video of triple-x pornography on a kid's cell phone. I was also shown a live-stream suicide video on the same kid's cell phone. The same kid—noticing a trend?—also said, “Just kill yourself” because of the Discord trend and other things. I was lucky. I told my mom and asked for help after these serious ideations. These negative experiences, along with the help of certain teachers and my parents, have led to a profound emotional and spiritual growth in my life. I cannot say the same for my peers I see each day. Please help us, as children, to end the addiction. Give us a place to be kids and socially interact with each other again.”

We are so very proud of Colin and his mother for how far they have come together. And while Colin is clearly an exceptional young man, I want you to know he is not the exception.

When you remove screens from your home, you, too, will be able to see the kind, fun, interesting child that emerges from the tech fog. And while the initial few weeks of detox may be bumpy for everyone, our Kids’ Brains & Screens Home Edition will help make that transition a lot easier by educating children about the effects of screen overuse and empowering them to take back control of their lives.

Order your copy of the KBS Home Edition here.

You CAN reclaim your home from screens. You CAN reestablish strong family connections. You can rescue your exceptional kid, too. And ScreenStrong is here to show you how.

ScreenStrong Resources

Podcast—“From 16,000 Videos to Real Life: Colin’s Screen Detox Story”

Podcast—“Introducing the Kids’ Brains & Screens Home Edition”

Melanie Hempe, BSN, is the founder of ScreenStrong, a nonprofit organization, and the author of the Kids’ Brains and Screens Series for students and parents. She is dedicated to preventing and reversing childhood screen addictions by providing scientific evidence and community for families around the globe. Her educational material is filled with everything she wished she had known before her oldest child suffered from a screen addiction. ScreenStrong has created what every family needs—education and the community—to skip toxic screens through adolescence so teens can reach their full potential.

Visit here for family resource materials and here for our Phone-Free Schools Guide, and visit ScreenStrong.org to learn more and join the community that is saving childhood.