A book can help with
For the arguments about screen time, and the bigger conversations underneath them.
Screens are a running negotiation in most houses, and the arguments about time are only half of it. The other half is what a child meets online: strangers who seem friendly, unkindness that follows them home, and the slow lesson that what you post doesn’t go away.
Books are a good way in because they make the conversation about a character rather than an accusation. A cautionary story lets you talk about strangers and oversharing without your child feeling told off or interrogated, and the funny ones open the screen-time subject without a row.
Here’s what I’d reach for. Find your child’s age and start there.
First lessons online
At this age it’s about balance and the simplest safety rules, told as stories rather than warnings.
A little chick shares her name, her age and her photo online, then goes to meet a new friend who turns out to be a fox. It’s a proper cautionary tale, done in rhyme with a light touch, and it lands the never-meet-a-stranger message clearly. There’s a whole set of these, all worth knowing.
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Doug is a robot who is filled with facts each morning until one day he unplugs and goes outside to find things out for himself. It makes the case for the real world without any lecturing, and it’s charming rather than worthy. A good gentle nudge away from the screen.
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Kindness and consequences
Older children are online without you now. These cover behaving well and the fact that nothing online quite disappears.
Two young goats find a phone and send unkind messages to a troll they’ve never met, only to discover the hurt they’ve caused a perfectly nice creature. It’s the clearest picture-book introduction to cyberbullying there is. Funny, and it lands squarely.
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The idea is that everything you do online drags a tail behind you that never quite goes away, which is a memorable picture of a digital footprint. It’s practical about being careful with words online. Useful for the child just getting their own device.
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Out there on their own
By this age they need real information rather than stories, on privacy, group chats and the harder corners of the internet.
A clear, practical guide covering cyberbullying, messaging, sharing images and how online life affects friendships. It treats an older child as capable of managing themselves rather than simply warning them off. Best dipped into together, given some of the subjects it covers.
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Bad Kitty gets a phone and is instantly, hilariously consumed by it, in a graphic novel that’s very funny about exactly what happens to all of us. Because the lesson arrives inside a joke, children take it far better. Great for a reluctant reader, and a good conversation starter.
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Something to do together
A family agreement to fill in together: when screens are on, where they live at night, and what to do if something online feels wrong. I’m making it now, and it will live here soon.
The most useful thing you can give a child online isn’t a filter, it’s the certainty that they can tell you if something goes wrong without losing the device. Fear of confiscation keeps more children silent than anything else.
So agree the rules together rather than imposing them, keep screens out of bedrooms at night where you can, and make it clear they won’t be in trouble for coming to you. And take an interest in what they actually do online, since curiosity works far better than surveillance.
These pages are written for the grown-ups looking after a child: parents, teachers and carers. A good book can sit beside a worried child, though it never stands in for a real conversation, or for proper support when something feels too big to carry alone.