But there is also a no-nonsense, commonsensical thread running through this report that is surprisingly fresh. In advice to parents, it holds out that they must model good habits and behaviors, including getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, eating healthily, and “taking time to unplug from technology or social media.” It emphasizes the importance of connecting young people with stable, mentoring adults, and dependable friends. The report lays out a very commonsensical way of weighing the risks and benefits of the Internet for children and adolescents, emphasizing while that the Internet can enhance real-world friendships, it cannot replace or substitute for them. Similarly, it is poisonous for a young person’s mental health if it replaces time that would be spent doing real-world social activities, or takes any from sleep.

This may all seem quite basic. But the fact is that many parents don’t take the connection between physical and mental health seriously enough. The reminder to set, or re-set, daily routines for themselves and their children is salutary after nearly two years when many institutions that provide routine have themselves disintegrated, or have been subject to hostile public-health diktats that make routine impossible.

The overwhelming thrust of the report is that children desperately need real-world, in-person, face-to-face socialization with peers, mentors, and quality time with stable parents. They need to be outdoors in the sun, and get good sleep. There is no guff in the report whatsoever about how parents should reconcile themselves or try to reconcile their children to a different, individualized, private sense of “health” that is at odds with common sense.