More than 4,000 parents have joined a group pledging to ban their young children from smartphones, amid growing concerns about online safety and the impact of social media on mental health.
The WhatsApp group ‘Smartphone Free Childhood’ responds to concerns about children’s smartphone use and the ‘norm’ of giving children smart devices when they attend secondary school, created by former school friends Clare Furnyhoff and Daisy Green. Founded by Well.
“I have children aged 7 and 9. Daisy has children of a similar age and we both feel really scared and anxious and now it’s 11 years old and it’s normal. I didn’t want him to have a smartphone at his age.”
Fernyhoff and Greenwell hope the campaign will encourage parents to delay giving their children smartphones until at least the age of 14 and ban them from accessing social media until the age of 16.
But what they had hoped would be a small group of friends “empowering each other” turned into a nationwide group after the group reached its 1,000-person capacity within 24 hours of Greenwell uploading the message. It turned into a campaign. Instagram post To promote it.
“We were completely surprised by this,” Fernyhough said. “I’ve gone completely crazy.”
Daisy Greenwell. Photo: Alastair Bartlett/Tilt Shift Creative
The pair encouraged people to form local groups to deal with the demand. “Before our eyes, within 30 minutes, 30 local groups were born across the country, and it continues to grow,” Fernyhoff said.
The group has been transformed into a community to allow more people to participate and currently has approximately 4,500 members.
Smartphones are exposing children to a “world they’re not ready for”, with access to pornography and content about self-harm and suicide, which can have a negative impact on children’s mental health, Furneyhough said. said. “I thought maybe they don’t need it. You don’t need a smartphone at that age. A brick phone can do everything you need.”
Ofcom research shows that 91% of children in the UK own a smartphone by the age of 11, and 44% by the age of 9.
“We thought we had extreme ideas, and that’s why we wanted to be in solidarity with each other, but what we realized was that we were actually pulling the lid on something. I mean, it’s like an open question. I came here by mistake, and people really need to talk about this, and a lot of people feel the same way we do. I feel like I can’t talk,” Fernyhoff said.
Brianna Gee’s mother, Esther Gee, earlier this week called for a complete ban on social media for under-16s, calling for a complete ban on social media access for under-16s, unless tech companies take steps to restrict access to harmful content. , said there would be more people with mental health problems.
Brianna was murdered on February 11, 2023, and her mother believes she was vulnerable after spending so much time online.
The goal is to change this norm, Fernyhow said, so that by the time children graduate from elementary school, the whole class will come together and say, “Let’s all delay this until at least 14 years old.” This means that all children in primary school go on to secondary school where they have a certain number of peers doing the same thing, reducing peer pressure.
“We don’t just want kids to go to middle school,” Fernyhoff said. “It’s a nightmare. No one would do that to their child.” But if 20%, 30%, even 50% of his children enroll because their parents made that decision. , they will be in a much better position.
“They can have the childhood they were meant to have, focus on learning, and enjoy the real world without having to spend their lives scrolling. We all know that’s not good for them. I know.”
Source: www.theguardian.com
