With the start of the school year just weeks away, the issue of cellphone use inside them is knocking at their door.

For some, it comes with pain, like the parents who sued social media companies after their teenagers died by suicide. Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube are answering allegations their platforms were addictive and contributed to sleep deprivation, anxiety, depression and suicidal thinking.

Filed in Delaware, the suit involves families in Texas, North Carolina, Minnesota and Tennessee whose children died between July 2024 and September 2025.

Another trial began in California on Tuesday, where Meta is being accused in federal court of intentionally making Facebook and Instagram addictive to children, among other things.

The suits contain allegations, and at the very least, are worth a closer look.

They’re an opportunity to explore a larger issue. Big Tech companies shouldn’t be able to design products to hold the attention of young people indefinitely, profit from that attention, then claim they’re not responsible when someone is harmed.

Courts should weigh the evidence, and lawmakers should call for greater accountability, transparency and more effective protections for young people.

But while all that is happening, parents shouldn’t confuse it with their own primary responsibility.

After all, a cellphone is not a constitutional rite of passage like voting, driving or drinking.

It’s a communications device, camera, tracker, gaming console, television, shopping portal and — using social media — a 24-hour doorway into a child’s world. Deciding whether or not a child receives one is a decision that should not be made by peer pressure, advertising or a kid saying, “but everyone else has one.”

Parents have the final say about whether their child gets a phone, when it happens and how it is used outside school.

In that process, there’s no hard and fast rule about a safe age for a first cellphone. The American Academy of Pediatrics says the right age varies from child to child.

The group says parents need to look at maturity, honesty and their child’s ability to cope with social situations and conflicts.

A smartphone shouldn’t be just a birthday present, because the optimal age varies from kid to kid.

That’s a fair appraisal.

A youngster who needs to contact a family member when practice ends or chess club is over may only need a basic phone.

They don’t need unrestricted access to social media, browsers, disappearing messages or whatever Big Tech’s algorithms decide to show them.

Parents can help limit what their kids see with a commonsense approach to a new device.

No phones in bedrooms overnight. No social media accounts without a parent’s approval.

No secret accounts or apps that have disappearing messages.

No phones during meals, homework or family activities.

No unlimited screen time. It should be tied to behavior, sleep, homework and real-world activities like sports or other organized activities.

No denying parents’ access to reviewing the phone’s contacts and messages.

That’s not spying. It’s parenting.

Schools have a responsibility, too. Teachers don’t need to compete with buzzing phones, group chats and viral videos in algebra or American history class.

Locally, area school districts have policies that restrict cellphones during school time, some requiring phones off and stored away and others available only at designated times.

Schools have policy and procedure in place to communicate with parents in the event of a real crisis, but the possibility that a parent may want to text their child anytime shouldn’t turn into a reason to stop teaching or learning.

Through all this, the roles are relatively clear.

Schools can regulate a student’s conduct during the school day. Lawmakers can regulate companies and set reasonable safeguards and rules. Courts can decide whether any social media platforms harmed children.

All the important cellphone policies won’t be argued in Harrisburg, Washington or a courtroom.

They’re best established over the kitchen table.

Parents have the real power. They can decide when their child is ready to carry around a device that connects them to the world and at the same time keeps them from what’s going on in the classroom.

That power shouldn’t be surrendered to TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Apple, Google, school districts or lawmakers.

That power should be used to ask questions, set limits, check phones and say “no” when it’s needed.

Today’s technology has complicated things for today’s parents. Though it can be useful, it can also expose their kids to risks they shouldn’t have to deal with.

Deciding when children can use it — and making sure they use it responsibly — is a call only a parent can make.

ED SOCHA | tneditor@tnonline.com

Ed Socha is a retired newspaper editor with more than 45 years’ experience in community journalism.

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.