Take back control of the apps designed to take it from you.
DarkBadge shows you exactly how apps and games are built to keep you and your kids scrolling — and gives you a real alternative, not just a guilt trip.
Green, yellow, red — same scale, every app.
See all badges →Built on published behavioral-design research, not guesswork.
What the score actually means
Agency · How hard it is to stop once you've started.
Bottomlessness · No natural end: the feed never runs out.
Speed · How fast the next hit arrives.
Teasing · Near-misses and rewards just out of reach.
Social Pressure · Streaks, likes and peers that make leaving costly.
What to do instead
We don’t suggest "just use it less" — that fights the same reward loop the app was engineered to win. Instead we match each app to a real-world activity that pays out a similar reward — novelty, story, open-ended play — but has a natural stopping point built in, so leaving the screen behind is motivation, not white-knuckled restraint.
Instead of TikTok → Improv Comedy Class
Just like TikTok's short, punchy creative videos, improv comedy classes challenge you to entertain an audience in brief, spontaneous bursts — building real performance confidence face-to-face instead of through a screen.
Instead of Toca Boca World → LEGO City Advent Calendar & Town Starter Set
Just like Toca Boca World lets kids build out a customizable town full of characters and themed locations to explore freely, this LEGO City set gives young children tactile, hands-on control to construct their own miniature world, populate it with minifigures, and act out endless open-ended stories — no screen required.
Instead of Netflix → Local Library Film Society Screening Night
Just like Netflix offers a curated library of movies and shows across genres to enjoy at your leisure, a local library film society gives you a socially rich, expertly curated cinematic experience — from classic films to indie gems — without a screen subscription in sight.
Go deeper
A score tells you what an app is doing. This is where you learn why it works — so the next app that hooks you a different way doesn't catch you off guard either. Three angles, pick the one you need:
What it's actually doing to kids and parents. e.g. iGen
Strategies →The tactics designers use, and how to counter them. e.g. Hooked
Theories & brain →The neuroscience behind why it works on anyone. e.g. Dopamine Nation
Irresistible
Adam Alter · 2017
Adam Alter on the rise of behavioural addiction and the design patterns that drive it — infinite scroll, variable rewards, social feedback loops. Argues these aren't incidental side effects but the deliberate product of A/B-tested engagement engineering.
How this relates to DarkBadge →
Hooked
Nir Eyal · 2014
Nir Eyal's blueprint for building habit-forming products, structured around a four-step "Hook Model": trigger, action, variable reward, investment. Written as a how-to for product teams — DarkBadge treats it as a map of the mechanisms it scores.
How this relates to DarkBadge →
Dopamine Nation
Anna Lembke · 2021
Anna Lembke, a Stanford psychiatrist, on the brain's pleasure-pain balance and why constant small hits of dopamine — from a phone as much as any substance — push that balance toward craving. Makes the direct case for scheduled abstinence as a reset.
How this relates to DarkBadge →
How this was built
Built solo — product, backend, frontend, infra, and design — by James Saxon, orchestrated end-to-end by Shmorch, an AI development system James also builds. Spec first, test first, no shortcuts.
Next.js · FastAPI on AWS Lambda · Neon Postgres · Claude API · Shmorch
See how this was built →For Organizations
Do you publish guidance for parents on apps and games — like Common Sense Media? DarkBadge's scoring data is available to license.
Get in touch →