Michael Carr-Gregg
Clinicians & Public Health · Independent practice
Adolescent psychologist who led the review behind New South Wales's school phone ban.
Michael Carr-Gregg is an adolescent psychologist in Australia who led the review that recommended banning phones in New South Wales public schools, a policy since adopted across the state. He has become one of Australia's most visible champions of the country's under-16 social-media law, drawing on his clinical work with teenagers to argue for firmer limits on phones and social platforms in young people's daily lives. His combination of clinical practice and policy advocacy has made him a frequent voice in Australia's national debate over kids and screens.
WORKS IN THE LIBRARY (13)
BOOKS
Beyond Cyberbullying: An Essential Guide for Parenting in the Digital Age
Beyond Cyberbullying is Michael Carr-Gregg's parenting guide to children's online lives, published by Penguin as a fully updated edition of his earlier book Real Wired Child. Carr-Gregg sets out what he says children encounter online — cyberbullying, unfamiliar games and apps, and contact with strangers — and offers parents practical guidance for internet safety without, he argues, unnecessarily restricting children's ability to learn, explore, and communicate online. The book frames online risk as something parents can actively manage through supervision and open conversation rather than through blanket restriction alone. TechKids Foundation cites this as Carr-Gregg's principal book-length treatment of cyberbullying and family internet safety, reflecting his long-running clinical-practice framing of digital-age parenting rather than a research study.
The Princess Bitchface Syndrome 2.0
The Princess Bitchface Syndrome 2.0 is a fully revised edition of Michael Carr-Gregg and researcher Elly Robinson's bestselling guide to parenting adolescent girls, first published a decade earlier. Publisher materials describe this edition as expanded specifically to address what the authors call 'the single most prolific and influential factor of our times — technology,' alongside its existing chapters on adolescent development, school pressures, and parenting strategies. The book frames heavy or unsupervised technology use as one of several pressures reshaping modern adolescence, to be managed through parenting strategy rather than treated as a clinical diagnosis. TechKids Foundation cites this revised edition specifically for its added technology material, as one of Carr-Gregg's most widely sold books, rather than for its broader parenting content.
STUDIES
Mobile phones will be banned in NSW primary schools from next year
This ABC News report covers the outcome of the expert review Michael Carr-Gregg led for the New South Wales government, commissioned in mid-2018, which drew on roughly 14,000 survey responses and 80 written submissions. Following the review, NSW announced it would require public primary schools to ban student mobile phones from the following year, with high schools given the option to opt in. The review's submissions raised concerns including students sharing explicit images and predatory contact from strangers online. Carr-Gregg is quoted describing the case for a ban as a 'no-brainer' given the scale of public and political support, and predicting a broader statewide school phone ban within roughly a year. TechKids Foundation cites this as the primary documented account of the policy outcome tied to his review.
Mobile phone ban in schools gives students more learning time, 'freedom away' from devices
Reporting on the rollout of a statewide phone ban across NSW public high schools, this ABC Newcastle piece follows students and a principal at Kotara High School describing life under a lockable-pouch phone policy, alongside commentary from Michael Carr-Gregg, identified as the psychologist who led the 2018 independent review that led to the earlier NSW primary-school ban. Carr-Gregg says schools that had already banned phones reported improved academic outcomes, fewer distractions, and more social interaction at recess and lunch, and argues growing public and political pressure made a national policy on the issue increasingly likely. The article notes several other states had already introduced similar bans. TechKids Foundation includes this as a five-years-later follow-up documenting the review's continuing influence on Australian school phone policy.
Roblox Is Grooming Our Kids to Gamble — and We're Letting It Happen
In this first-person LinkedIn essay, Michael Carr-Gregg argues that many top Roblox games use loot boxes, near-miss animations, and countdown timers that he likens to gambling mechanics, citing University of Sydney researcher Marcus Carter's finding that 14 of the platform's top 15 games use what Carter calls deceptive monetisation techniques. Carr-Gregg contends that because Roblox's in-game currency cannot be cashed out, it falls outside gambling regulation despite what he describes as a similar psychological reward pattern for players, and says he sees children and parents in his own clinical practice dealing with escalating in-app spending and associated distress. He calls for regulatory scrutiny and calls on parents and schools to treat the issue as a consumer-protection and digital-literacy concern. TechKids Foundation cites this as Carr-Gregg's own recent public argument connecting a specific, named platform's design choices to gambling-like engagement patterns in children.
Norway just banned AI in primary schools? — should we follow?
Responding to Norway's June 2026 near-total ban on generative AI for primary-school students, Michael Carr-Gregg argues Australia should not follow suit, distinguishing AI tools from social media platforms he says he supported restricting for under-16s. He argues social media companies build products designed to capture attention and monetise young users, whereas AI, in his framing, is closer to a supervised tool like a calculator, and that banning it in classrooms would push unsupervised use into homes and widen inequality between families. He proposes supervised, education-specific AI use with strict guardrails against AI 'companion' products, alongside a national AI-literacy curriculum. TechKids Foundation includes this essay as Carr-Gregg's own recent position statement distinguishing his stance on AI in schools from his stance on youth social media access.
Our web-addict kids miss meals and sleep
Reporting on an Edith Cowan University study finding that roughly one in five Australian children spend enough time online that it displaces meals and sleep, this news.com.au piece quotes Michael Carr-Gregg's recommendations for parents. He advises removing screens — TVs, computers, tablets, and phones — from children's bedrooms so parents can monitor use and protect sleep, recommends no screen time at all for children under two, and suggests balancing each hour of screen use with an hour of active outdoor play. He also stresses that children under 10 need at least 10 hours of sleep and older children 8–9 hours, and that internet use should not be allowed to cut into that. TechKids Foundation cites this as an early, widely read example of Carr-Gregg's practical screen-time guidance for parents.
Parents have 'no idea' of child online and digital behaviour, survey finds
Covering a survey on the gap between what parents believe about their children's online activity and what actually happens, this news.com.au article quotes Michael Carr-Gregg describing a pattern he calls a 'fake good phenomenon,' where parents report confidently monitoring and supervising their children's device use despite most teenagers using devices in their bedrooms unsupervised. He attributes the gap to a mix of naivety and guilt rather than deliberate dishonesty, and says children can be 'sneaky and manipulative' in ways that make consistent oversight difficult even for attentive parents. Carr-Gregg's comments frame the disconnect as a parenting and awareness challenge rather than evidence of any specific harm. TechKids Foundation cites this as a documented example of his commentary on the limits of parental supervision of children's digital lives.
Australian children most worried about bullying, data reveals
Drawing on the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Census at Schools survey, this news.com.au article reports that bullying had become Australian schoolchildren's top-ranked worry, a shift from 2006 when water pollution ranked first, alongside a roughly fourfold rise in children's average weekly computer use over the same period. Michael Carr-Gregg is quoted saying the data amount to 'a clarion call to Australian parents to stop using screen time as a babysitter,' and that a correlation between technology access and cyberbullying is well established. He links extended screen exposure to heightened risk of anxiety and depression alongside bullying, and urges parents to set firmer limits on children's online time. TechKids Foundation cites this as an early example of Carr-Gregg connecting national survey data to his screen-time advocacy.
Children as young as 10 years old are sending sexually-explicit images to friends
This news.com.au article reports on sexting among Australian schoolchildren, citing Australian Institute of Criminology figures that 38% of surveyed teens aged 13–15 had sent sexual images, with girls doing so more often than boys, and noting the legal risk of criminal records for minors involved. Michael Carr-Gregg is quoted estimating sexting occurs among roughly 20% of primary-school-aged children he encounters clinically, calling the pattern 'not as rare as people think' and describing some outcomes as 'catastrophic.' He attributes part of the problem to children gaining phones and social media accounts, often via older siblings, before he says they and their parents are ready to manage the risks, and urges parents to set firmer limits rather than yield to peer pressure. TechKids Foundation cites this as documented commentary connecting early device and social-media access to sexting risk.
A happy medium? Why screens are not all bad
This Sydney Morning Herald piece presents a balanced view of children's screen use, quoting Michael Carr-Gregg on both risks and benefits of specific games. He says Fortnite's lack of save points and continuous play sessions can encourage compulsive play patterns affecting schoolwork, social life, and family relationships, and argues it is not appropriate for primary-school-aged children despite its popularity with them. By contrast, he describes using Minecraft therapeutically with a child who struggled to express himself through conventional conversation. He repeats his guidance that every hour of screen time be balanced with roughly two hours of unstructured outdoor or 'green' time, framing adult-set boundaries as necessary because children have not yet developed full self-regulation. TechKids Foundation cites this as Carr-Gregg distinguishing between specific games' design and effects rather than treating all screen use uniformly.
'Smartphones are like pokies in their pockets': Keeping kids phone-free
This Sydney Morning Herald article covers the launch of Wait Mate, a parent-led campaign encouraging families to delay giving children smartphones until high school, modelled on the US 'Wait Until 8th' movement. Alongside the campaign's founders, the piece quotes Michael Carr-Gregg — identified as the psychologist who led a 2018 review into mobile phone use in NSW schools — saying he links excessive screen time to sedentary behaviour, anxiety, lower self-esteem, social isolation, and reduced academic performance, and that primary-school-aged children should not have smartphones or social media accounts. He suggests standard phones or smartwatches can meet parents' need to stay in contact, and recommends children complete an 'eSmart Digital Licence' before receiving a smartphone. The article also quotes a researcher cautioning against treating social media as the sole cause of youth mental-health problems. TechKids Foundation cites this as a documented example of Carr-Gregg's practical smartphone-access recommendations for parents.