It’s clear that smartphone and social media companies will not act by themselves, so we parents have to take the lead….
It’s clear that smartphone and social media companies will not act by themselves, so we parents have to take the lead….
It’s not too late to make a difference!
The first children who were given smartphones in primary school are now adults, and we know now that for every year younger they were exposed to smartphones, the worse their mental health is today.
Armed with this knowledge and the resources available today, we hope to encourage parents to delay giving smartphones to their children, or support them to spend less time on these addictive devices.
4-5
hours
On average, we are spending 4 – 5 hours a day on our mobile devices. That’s more than a full day a week!
Over
50%
Despite overwhelming data showing that smartphones are harming children, this addiction continues to grow, with over half of 8-11 year olds in the UK having their own smartphone.
1 in
5
Media regulator Ofcom says 1 in 5 toddlers in the UK, as young as 3 or 4 years old, own a smartphone.
Rob is a Chartered Psychologist who specialises in helping organisations and individuals build resilience, improve mental health and sustain high performance.
He is one of the lead psychologists at Cognacity, a leading organisation of global experts in mental health and performance. Rob now provides training, coaching and consultancy for a wide range of clients including financial and professional services and elite sporting teams.
Rob lives with his young family on the Olympic Park in London, and is passionate about the movement to delay smartphones.
Old phones or ‘dumb phones’ are a great alternative to delay the use of smartphones. They offer essential telephone functions such as calls and text, and provide a simpler and less addictive user experience with no access to the internet, social media, or email.
Options include:
Although not always recommended for this use, GPS trackers are a simple way of monitoring only the location of your child when they are away from the house. These devices ping the location back to an app on a parent’s smartphone and can be useful especially when children are venturing out alone for the first time.
Options include:
These wearable devices are specifically designed for children, they are paired with a smartphone app on a parents phone and usually allow calls and messages between a small number of parent approved numbers. They also include GPS tracking and perhaps most importantly, health features that promote physical activity and fitness.
Options include:
Here are some of our favourite resources to support parents and carers who are keen to find out more about delaying the use of smartphones for their children.
Reflecting on the psychological, social and physical consequences of a phone-based childhood, the author of the perennially bestselling The Righteous Mind delivers an eye-opening examination into the causes of the current mental health epidemic among young people.
Smartphone Free Childhood is a parent-led movement on a mission to protect millions of children from the dangers of using smartphones too young.
Delay Smartphones began as a pilot campaign for three Edinburgh Primary Schools at the end of 2023.
They are now supporting other schools and parents across the country, and would welcome pledges from any parent ready to make this commitment!
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