Field Notes

source

Behavioral Forensics parental liability white paper

StatusStableUpdatedStands on1 sourceSupportsnotes

A July 2025 white paper by Behavioral Forensics LLC (Evin Daly) arguing that parents who knowingly provide smartphones to children under 13 without safeguards should face criminal liability under child endangerment, criminal negligence, and failure-to-protect statutes.

The saved PDF is the full document.

Core argument

The central analogy is explicit: “Parents who leave weapons, drugs, or abusive individuals within reach of their child are already subject to criminal prosecution. The same logic should apply to knowingly allowing unsupervised digital access.”

The paper cites Twenge et al. (2018), Orben & Przybylski (2019), and a 2025 Journal of Human Development and Capabilities study as evidence that smartphone access under 13 causes statistically significant mental health deterioration.

  • Child endangerment — knowingly placing a child in a situation likely to result in physical or mental harm
  • Criminal negligence — widespread documentation of digital risks satisfies the foreseeability standard
  • Failure to protect — extending the existing family-court doctrine to digital harm
  • Contributing to the delinquency of a minor — if digital exposure leads to risky behavior

The paper calls for precedent-setting litigation, legislative definitions of digital endangerment, and educational campaigns on parental legal liability.

Built on 1 source (1 external).

Working out connections…