Design Greenwell said the idea of making her older child was an inevitable smartphone for a long time. But by early last year, when her 8 -year -old daughter filled her with awe. When you spoke to other parents, “everyone said globally,” Yes, it’s a nightmare, but you have no choice, “Mrs. Greenwell, 41, remembers.
I decided to test that. A friend Claire Fernenov shared her concerns about the addictive qualities of smartphones and the impact of social media on mental health, so they created the WhatsApp group to develop a strategy. Then Mrs. Greenwell, who lives in the countryside of Suffolk, in eastern England, Spreading her ideas on Instagram.
“What if we could replace the social base so that in our school, our town, our country, it was a strange option to give your child a smartphone in 11”. “What if we could stop until it is 14 or 16?” It added a link to the WhatsApp collection.
The viral post went. Within 24 hours, the subscription in the group was increased with the crying of parents to join. Today, more than 124,000 children’s parents in more than 13,000 British schools have Fell An agreement established by the childhood free of smartphones, the charitable institution established by Mrs. Greenwell, her husband, Joe Riri, and Mrs. Verne. She says, “Acting in the interest of my child and our society, I will wait at least until the end of the year before getting a smartphone,” she says. (The ninth year is equivalent to the eighth American grade.)
The movement is in line with a A broader shift in positions in BritainAs an escalating evidence from Damage To develop minds through smartphones and social media that works in algorithm. In one reconnaissance Last year, the majority of the respondents – 69 percent – felt that social media negatively affected children under the age of 15. Nearly half of the parents said they struggled to reduce the time they spent on phones.
At the same time, the police and Intelligence services I warned of a torrent of severe content and violence Access to children Online, a trend was examined in the successful TV program TeenagerWhere a student is accused of death after being hated by women. Become Britain Watch most of them Show, on Monday, Prime Minister Kiir Starmer met With creators On Downing Street, he told them that he saw it with his son and daughter. But he also said: “This is not a challenge that politicians can simply legislate.”
Other governments in Europe have behaved restraining the smartphone for children. In February, Denmark Plans to ban smartphones have been announced in schoolsWhile France prevented smartphones in primary schools in 2018. Norway plans to enforce the minimum age on social media.
The British government has so far emerged from intervention. Josh McCalastter, the deputy work, tried to provide a legal condition to make all schools in England free smart. But the bill was give up After the government made it clear that it would not support the embargo, on the pretext that schools should make the decision.
Some parents feel that the need to act is urgent, especially since technology companies, including Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and X, which was previously Twitter, have EndAny many experts say they will allow the information to be misleading and Hate speech.
“We have no years to change things,” said Vicky Allen, 46, a mother of Heinfield in southern England. “It seems as if it needs to be.”
She and her friend, Julia Cassidy, 46, have successfully campaign for their children’s primary school to limit the use of the phone after she saw Mrs. Cassidy a Channel 4 documentary About smartphones in schools, then encountered childhood free of smartphones. Mrs. Cassidy would have gave her son a phone when he reached 11 years old, but he said: “I just played a very big rotation.” Now, you plan to give it a phone that can only be used for calls and texts.
Ms. Greenwell said that the strength of parents who collectively delay is smartphones, as it isolates children from peer pressure. “This problem is not complicated,” she said. “If you have other people around you also do the same, this is surprisingly surprising.”
“Most people just want to keep their children’s safety”
On the morning of last Friday, dozens of parents gathered in the Colandal Elementary School in North London to make a presentation by Nova Eden, the regional pioneer in childhood free of smartphones.
Amazing data described-that the 12-year-old in Britain spends 21 hours a week on a smartphone, for example, and 76 percent of children between the ages of 12 and 15 spend most of their free time on the screens. I also talked about emerging research about the effect of smartphone use.
Mrs. Aden has been martyred with studies that illustrate the rates of anxiety, depression and self -harm among adolescents who have greatly extended since the presentation of social media. “These children are struggling and need to help us,” said Mrs. Aden. “I know how difficult it is, but we need to be the ones who stand and say, this is not good for you.”
Mrs. Aden, 44, has described a fight to find the right balance of her children, between the ages of 5, 10 and 13 years old. She said she was the Ian Russell campaign, whose daughter Molly took her private life After watching the content related to Instagram and other social media, it prompted it to participate. She just gave her 13 -year -old phone.
She said, “At that time, I was suffering from this with my child, seeing change in it and his friends.”
Jane Palmer, director of the Colling School, admitted that some parents were skeptical of reducing the use of smartphones, or fully banning devices from the school, and its school will do from September.
Some argue that devices can provide social independence and allow them to contact their children in the event of an emergency. Others feel that parents’ controls are largely going to ensure online safety.
Ms. Palmer said that the talks between the parents began to give way to change. During the presentation, she described how a former student died due to suicide after being intimidated online.
“It may be difficult, and of course not everyone will support him,” she said. “But at the end of the day, I think most people only want to maintain the safety of their children.”
Located in the Barnet, Colindale is the first The town in Britain To ban smartphones in all its public schools. The initiative will affect about 63,000 children.
Iton, one of the most private schools in Britain, announced last year that new students will be Prohibited From bringing smartphones and will be released instead using Nokia devices that can only be text and make calls.
In Suffolk, the founders of the Smart Kindly Childhood Initiative realizes that their success in attracting parents to their case is partially thanks to social media and correspondence applications on which they published the word.
“There are a lot of positive things about this technology,” said Mr. Riri. “We are not trying to say that technology is bad, only we need to have a conversation as a community about when it is appropriate for children unrestricted to these things.”
