The UK government will not ban smartphones in schools. These parents were reinforced.

The idea of ​​getting her older child a smartphone had a long time inevitable, Daisy Greenwell said. But at the beginning of last year, when her daughter was 8 years old, she paid for fear. When he spoke with other parents, “everyone said worldwide,” Yes, it’s a nightmare, but you have no choice, “recalled Mrs Greenwell, 41.

Decided to try it. A friend, Clare Fernyhough, had shared her concerns about the addictive properties of smartphones and the impact of social media on mental health, so they created a Whatsapp group to strategize. Subsequently, Mrs Greenwell, who lives in the rural Suffolk, Eastern England, published her thoughts on Instagram.

“What if we could change the social rule so that in our school, in our city, in our country, it was a weird choice to make your child a smartphone at 11,” he wrote. “What if we could keep up to 14 or 16?” Add a link to WhatsApp team.

The suspension became viral. Within 24 hours the group exceeds parents shouting to participate. Today, more than 124,000 parents of children in more than 13,000 British schools have signed a pact created by childhood smartphone, the charity by Mrs Greenwell, her husband, Joe Ryrie and Ms. Fernyhough. He reads: “Acting in the best interest of my child and our community, I will wait at least until the end of the year 9 before taking them a smartphone.” (Year 9 is equivalent to the American eighth grade.)

The movement is aligned with a broader shift in attitudes to Britain, as it proves that the evidence of damage created in the development of brains from addiction to the smartphone and the social means that feed the algorithm. In a survey last year, the majority of respondents – 69 % – felt that social media had adversely affected children under 15 years. Almost half of the parents said they fought to limit the time the children were spent on the phones.

Meanwhile, police and intelligence services have warned of an extreme and violent content that arrives at children online, a trend examined in television television, in which a student is accused of murder after reports in online misogyny. The most attendance of Britain and Monday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with its creators in Downing Street, telling them that he had watched 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 acted to limit the use of children’s smartphones. In February, Denmark announced plans to ban smartphones in schools, while France prevented smartphones at elementary schools in 2018. Norway plans to impose a minimal age on social media.

So far the British government has appeared cautious. Josh Macalister, legislator of the workforce, tried to introduce a legal requirement to do all schools in England Smartphone for free. However, the bill was weakened after the government made it clear that it would not support a ban, arguing that directors would have to make the decision.

Some parents believe that the need for action is urgent, especially as technology companies, including META, which holds Facebook and Instagram and X, formerly Twitter, have finished events control operations, which many experts say they will allow misinformation and misinformation.

“We don’t have years to change things,” said Vicky Allen, 46, a mother from Henfield in southern England. “He feels that he should be.”

She and a friend, Julia Cassidy, 46, competed successfully for their children’s school to limit the use of phone after Mrs Cassidy watched a Channel 4 documentary for smartphones in schools and then met with a childhood without a smartphone. Ms Cassidy was going to give her son a phone when she turned 11, but said, “I have just made a very big turn.” Now, he plans to give him a phone that can only be used for calls and texts.

The power of parents collectively delaying smartphones is the key, Ms Greenwell said, because she isolates children from peer pressure. “This problem is not so complicated,” he said. “If you have other people around you who also do the same thing, they are really amazing, beautifully simple.”

‘Most people just want to keep their children safe’

On a recent Friday morning, dozens of parents gathered at the Colindale Elementary School Amphitheater in northern London for the presentation of Nova Eden, a regional leader for childhood without a smartphone.

He described the amazing data-that the average 12-year-old in Britain spends 21 hours a week on a smartphone, for example, and that 76 % of 12 to 15 years spend most of their free time on screens. He also talked about the emerging research on the impact of the use of smartphone.

Ms. Eden reported studies showing percentages of anxiety, depression and self -injury among adolescents dramatically launched since the social media was introduced. “These kids are struggling and needing our help,” Ms Eden said. “I know how difficult it is, but we must be the ones who get up and say, that’s not good for you.”

Mrs Eden, 44, describes that she is struggling to find the right balance for her own children, aged 5, 10 and 13. She had just given her own 13 -year -old phone.

“At that time, I was going through this with my child and seeing the change to him and his friends,” he said.

Jane Palmer, Director of the School of Colindale, acknowledged that some parents were skeptical of limiting the use of smartphone or banning the devices from school entirely, as her school will do since September.

Some argue that devices can provide social independence and allow them to communicate with their children in an emergency. Others feel that parental controls are going long enough to ensure security on the internet.

But talks between parents had begun to make a change for change, Ms Palmer said. During the presentation, he described how a former student had died of suicide after being intimidated online.

“It can be difficult, and of course not everyone will support it,” he said of the ban. “But at the end of the day. I think most people just want to keep their children safe.”

Colindale is located in the Municipality of Barnet, which in February announced plans to become the first municipality in Britain to ban smartphones in all its public schools. The initiative will affect about 63,000 children.

Eton, one of Britain’s most elite private schools, announced last year that young students would be banned from bringing smartphones and issued contrary to Nokia devices that can only text and call.

In Suffolk, the founders of the childhood without childhood smartphone know that their success in attracting parents to their cause is partly thanks to social media and messages that have spread the word.

“There are many positive things about this technology,” Mr Ryrie said. “We are not trying to say that technology is bad. Just that we need to have a discussion as a society as to when it is suitable for children to have unlimited access to these things.”