The best advice I can give to a soon to be parent. There is no single program that guarantees happy/productive/well adjusted kids and specifically adolescents.

The best advice I can give to a soon to be parent. There is no single program that guarantees happy/productive/well adjusted kids and specifically adolescents. The biggest surprise with children is just how different they all are, even when raised in similar environments. Children can be certainly derailed by a poor upbringing, but that doesn't mean that they are always properly molded by a 'good' upbringing. I'm not sure why the parents didn't take a harder line earlier in the process, but I have my suspicions. By the time a child is 15, parenting tends to become more results oriented. They are going to be on their own legally inside of 3 years, and parents have to take the training wheels off. Kelly's parents may have been attempting to get her to see the deleterious effects of the phone. If an 8 year old is spending too much time on screens, you take them away. By 15 Kelly's parents probably want her to take more ownership over behavior. The parents can point to the failing grades, lack of social progress, and missed opportunities and say "are you proud of this? Is this what you want?" Some kids have to learn things the hard way via personal experience rather than parental instruction. Parents may want their kids to make this sorts of mistakes before adulthood hits them and raises the stakes. After all, the real world has phones without any screen time limits.