Parents are getting so fed up trying to keep their teens off phones that some are bypassing the usual lectures and parental controls and are instead offering cash, and even cars.
Jennifer Abbott, a small-business owner in Brooklyn, N.Y., said she made a deal with her two kids to each get $1,800 when they turn 18—if they can stay off social media until then. “It’s all or nothing,” Abbott says. “They’re both pretty pumped about it.”
Her son, Beckett, 12, says the money will help with college. Her daughter, Evie, 11, says she plans to invest. “I’ll put it in the bank maybe, for it to multiply,” she says.
Abbott says she realizes her kids are still young enough that they don’t feel like they’re missing out. Her goal is to normalize life without social media before it becomes a dependency—and while $1,800 still seems like a lot of money to her children.
“If we offered this to them at 16, they wouldn’t take it,” she says. “They’d be asking if there’s compound interest.”