A PACT to enable children to have a 'smartphone-free childhood' that has been signed by more than 34,000 parents is starting to gain momentum in Andover.
A total of 14 schools in Andover have seen parents sign the pact to wait to give their child a smartphone until at least the end of Year 9 (age 14), in a bid to protect their children from being exposed to the dangers of smartphones before they are old enough.
Hampshire is the fifth leading county in the UK for signatures, with parents from 317 schools signing up, ensuring protection for 2,745 children.
Farleigh School, a Catholic prep school with students aged three to 13, was the Andover school with the highest number of signatures and the eighth most signatures in Hampshire, with 60 signing the pact.
The school's director of finance and operations, Gareth Mawdsley, said the school bans mobile phones, adding: “I just don’t think this is an issue with the age children we have got here.
“We don’t allow phones in the school, these are probably not the children most affected.
“It’s not something that is brought up by parents to the school, that’s not to say it wouldn’t be in the future, we’d look at it then.”
The full list of Andover schools from which parents have signed the ‘Smartphone-Free Childhood’ pact is as follows:
- Abbotts Ann CE Primary School, Abbotts Ann – six signatures
- Amport CE Primary School, Amport- three signatures
- Anton Infant School, Andover- one signature
- Anton Junior School, Andover- two signatures
- Appleshaw St Peter’s CE Primary School, Ragged Appleshaw - one signature
- Clatford CE Primary School, Goodworth Clatford- three signatures
- Farleigh School, Andover- 60 signatures
- Harrow Way Community School, Andover- three signatures
- Hurstbourne Tarrant CE Primary School, Hurstbourne Tarrant- six signatures
- Longparish CE Primary School - two signatures
- St Mary Bourne Primary School, St Mary Bourne- one signatures
- Vernham Dean Gillum’s CE Primary School, Vernham Dean - one signatures
- Vigo Primary School, Andover- three signatures
- Winton Community Academy, Andover- one signatures
The parent pact was put together by the grassroots movement ‘Smartphone Free Childhood’, which is hoping to protect children from the dangers that smartphones can pose, including impacting children’s mental health, acting as an academic distraction and providing a platform for harmful content and cyberbullying.
Describing themselves as an accidental movement, friends and founders Daisy and Clare set up a WhatsApp group in February to support each other in the decision to hold off on buying their kids smartphones. Within 24 hours, thousands of other parents had joined the group after an Instagram post by Daisy went viral.
The initial group quickly maxed out at 1,000 members, so they encouraged people to set up local groups to build the conversation in their areas. Within hours, more than 60 Smartphone Free Childhood WhatsApp groups had launched across Britain, kicking off a national conversation about the harms of smartphones for children. The founders have been invited to Downing Street to discuss the movement further.
The national pact currently sits at 34,780 parents from 6,357 schools, with the number one spot held by Hertfordshire, followed by Surrey, South West London and then Hampshire in fourth.
'Smartphone Free Childhood' states: "We’re on mission to change the cultural norm that children are given smartphones, and challenge Big Tech’s ever-increasing colonisation of childhood."
It aims to bring parents together to solve the struggle between letting children have smartphones which expose them to the internet and not buying children smartphones, which risks alienating them from their peer group.
It has three three clear goals:
1. Growing the national conversation about the harms of smartphones for children.
2. Empowering parents and schools to take collective action and create change at a local level.
3. Putting pressure on government and tech companies to help us protect our children.
You can read more about the movement and follow the results of the petition here: www.SmartphoneFreeChildhood.co.uk.
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