NOT BROKEN - RESOURCES
Recommended
Reading
Every book here was chosen because it changed the way we think about children, technology, and the brain. These are the books we return to, and the ones we hand to parents.
We read widely. We recommend selectively. The books below represent the strongest evidence-based thinking on children's development and technology — selected because they inform the Not Broken framework directly, and because they are genuinely useful for parents, not just practitioners.
THE READING LIST
A note on how we recommend: We provide editorial context for each book — including where the evidence is stronger or more contested. We believe intellectually honest recommendations serve families better than uncritical endorsements. All links go to Booktopia, Australia's independent online bookstore.
ESSENTIAL READING
The Anxious Generation
JONATHAN HAIDT · 2024 · Penguin Press
The book that changed the policy conversation on children and smartphones worldwide. Haidt documents the collapse of adolescent mental health following the arrival of social media and the smartphone, and makes a compelling case for what must change — at the level of families, schools, and governments.
WHY WE RECOMMEND IT
This work directly shaped Australia's under-16 social media legislation in 2025. It is the most influential piece of writing on children and technology of the past decade. We recommend it as essential reading — with the note that some researchers debate the strength of the causal claims. We believe the precautionary principle applies when children are involved.
NEUROSCIENCE AND LEARNING
The Digital Delusion
DR JARED COONEY HORVATH · 2025 · Penguin
A Melbourne-based neuroscientist and educator dismantles the myths driving EdTech — and shows why digital tools in classrooms consistently undermine learning. Not anti-technology, but rigorously pro-learning. Jonathan Haidt called it "essential reading" and endorsed it on publication.
WHY WE RECOMMEND IT
Dr Horvath researches at the University of Melbourne and has lectured at Harvard. His work on brain science and learning directly informs what we know about how screens affect the developing brain's capacity for deep thought. If you want to understand the neuroscience underneath the Not Broken framework, start here.
ATTACHMENT - PARENTING
Hold On to Your Kids
GORDON NEUFELD & GABOR MATE· Updated Edition · Vermilion
A landmark book on why parents need to matter more than peers — and what happens when they don't. Neufeld and Maté show how peer orientation has quietly replaced parental attachment as the primary force shaping children's values, identity, and behaviour. The updated edition includes a new chapter on the role of digital devices and social media in accelerating this shift.
WHY WE RECOMMEND IT
This is the book underneath the Not Broken First Screen philosophy. It explains — with both clinical depth and disarming honesty about the difficulty of parenting — why the parent-child relationship is the only real leverage any of us has. Not a how-to manual. Something more important than that: a framework for understanding why connection comes before everything else. If you read one book from this list, make it this one.