Dr. Erica Komisar drops a stark warning every parent needs to hear about screens and kids: “No technology under age 2 — for good reason. After that, regulate it heavily.” She explains why: Screens spike dopamine in developing brains 10 times more than in adults — like giving a teen the equivalent of 10 joints from a single exposure. The prefrontal cortex (emotion regulation) isn't fully developed until ~25, so kids get hooked fast. Social media in particular exploits adolescent girls' natural hyper-vigilance: perfectionism, comparison, fear of not measuring up → chronic stress response in the amygdala. Boys aren't immune either — both sexes get trapped in a virtual reality of self-consciousness, isolation, and addiction. “They get stuck in this paradigm… in a way, trapped in a fantasy.” This clip may be a year old, but the science on dopamine sensitivity, prefrontal development, and screen addiction in kids hasn't changed — it's only gotten more relevant. Parents: Are you enforcing hard screen limits with your kids — or has it already slipped?