{"id":14981,"date":"2024-06-30T10:38:18","date_gmt":"2024-06-30T08:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/30\/we-wanted-to-change-the-norm-on-smartphone-use-grassroots-campaigners-on-a-phone-free-childhood\/"},"modified":"2024-06-30T10:38:18","modified_gmt":"2024-06-30T08:38:18","slug":"we-wanted-to-change-the-norm-on-smartphone-use-grassroots-campaigners-on-a-phone-free-childhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/30\/we-wanted-to-change-the-norm-on-smartphone-use-grassroots-campaigners-on-a-phone-free-childhood\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We wanted to change the norm on smartphone use\u2019: grassroots campaigners on a phone-free childhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most UK children have their own phone by the age of 11. But what if we didn\u2019t give them one? A group of parents wants their kids to enjoy a phone-free childhood \u2013 and their numbers are growing<\/p>\n

Last year, Daisy Greenwell and Clare Fernyhough, longtime friends who have eight- and nine-year-old daughters, began having drawn-out conversations about smartphones. Rumours were swirling that children in their daughters\u2019 classes were asking for their own and both Greenwell and Fernyhough were apprehensive about the knock-on effect. If their daughters\u2019 friends owned smartphones, wouldn\u2019t their daughters eventually demand them, too? And what might happen then? Talking to the parents of children who already owned smartphones only helped to increase their concern. \u201cThey told us about kids disappearing into their screens,\u201d Greenwell said recently. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to hang out with family any more. They don\u2019t want to go outside.\u201d A local teacher told Greenwell he was able to speak with his daughter only when the wifi was turned off. \u201cAnd these are the lighter <\/em>problems,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Neither Greenwell nor Fernyhough wanted to buy smartphones for their children until they turned 16 (preferably they wouldn\u2019t own them until much later). But they could feel pressure mounting. In the UK, 91% of 11-year-olds have a smartphone \u2013 it became common remarkably quickly for children to be given a phone when they began secondary school \u2013 and 20% of children own them by the time they are four. (The average age for a UK child to receive their first smartphone is around nine.) With grim acceptance, secondary school parents told Greenwell, \u201cIt\u2019s the worst, it\u2019s so, so<\/em> bad, but there\u2019s no choice\u201d \u2013 they couldn\u2019t find a way to prevent their children from having something all of their friends already owned. Both Greenwell and Fernyhough felt trapped; for their daughters, secondary school loomed on the horizon. \u201cWe thought, \u2018What can we do about it?\u2019\u201d Greenwell told me. \u201cShall we not<\/em> get one? But what if everyone else gets one and our children are the only ones without?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nMost UK children have their own phone by the age of 11. But what if we didn\u2019t give them one? A group of parents wants their kids to enjoy a phone-free childhood \u2013 and their numbers are growing
\nLast year, Daisy Greenwell and Clare Fernyhough, longtime friends who have eight- and nine-year-old daughters, began having drawn-out conversations about smartphones. Rumours were swirling that children in their daughters\u2019 classes were asking for their own and both Greenwell and Fernyhough were apprehensive about the knock-on effect. If their daughters\u2019 friends owned smartphones, wouldn\u2019t their daughters eventually demand them, too? And what might happen then? Talking to the parents of children who already owned smartphones only helped to increase their concern. \u201cThey told us about kids disappearing into their screens,\u201d Greenwell said recently. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to hang out with family any more. They don\u2019t want to go outside.\u201d A local teacher told Greenwell he was able to speak with his daughter only when the wifi was turned off. \u201cAnd these are the lighter problems,\u201d she said.
\nNeither Greenwell nor Fernyhough wanted to buy smartphones for their children until they turned 16 (preferably they wouldn\u2019t own them until much later). But they could feel pressure mounting. In the UK, 91% of 11-year-olds have a smartphone \u2013 it became common remarkably quickly for children to be given a phone when they began secondary school \u2013 and 20% of children own them by the time they are four. (The average age for a UK child to receive their first smartphone is around nine.) With grim acceptance, secondary school parents told Greenwell, \u201cIt\u2019s the worst, it\u2019s so, so bad, but there\u2019s no choice\u201d \u2013 they couldn\u2019t find a way to prevent their children from having something all of their friends already owned. Both Greenwell and Fernyhough felt trapped; for their daughters, secondary school loomed on the horizon. \u201cWe thought, \u2018What can we do about it?\u2019\u201d Greenwell told me. \u201cShall we not get one? But what if everyone else gets one and our children are the only ones without?\u201d Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most UK children have their own phone by the age of 11. But what if we didn\u2019t give them one? A group of parents wants their kids to enjoy a phone-free childhood \u2013 and their numbers are growing Last year, Daisy Greenwell and Clare Fernyhough, longtime friends who have eight- and nine-year-old daughters, began having …<\/p>\n

\u2018We wanted to change the norm on smartphone use\u2019: grassroots campaigners on a phone-free childhood<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14981"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}