How my family's mobile obsessions converted me to the Smartphone Free Childhood mission

I’m the one who mindlessly scrolls social media, until lights out. Still, though I’m a lost cause, I worry about their formative brains. 

Thus, I’m totally behind the Smartphone Free Childhood campaign, which started earlier this year. It has thousands of members, and myriad WhatsApp groups.

This UK-wide grassroots movement has garnered plenty of interest from Scottish parents and caregivers. 

This country alone has seen 3,095 people sign The Parent Pact, to delay their children from using a smartphone until the age of 14.

The school with the most signatures is Law Primary School in North Berwick, at the significantly high number of 233, followed by Netherlee Primary School, with 98. 

Ironically, this crusade gathered momentum when an Instagram post by one of the founders, journalist Daisy Greenwell, went viral. She discovered that thousands of parents (and aunties, uncles and grandparents) had the same concerns. 

She now runs the campaign with her husband, creative director, Joe Ryrie, and business psychologist, Clare Fernyhough. 

Their website details a few of the problems. Apparently, the average 12-year-old now spends an incredible 29 hours a week on their smartphone.

That’s despite the fact that, among other things, these devices are notoriously addictive, can distract kids at school, potentially affect sleep and mental health, as well as expose them to harmful content and grooming.

Avoiding their use is something I might have pooh-poohed when my nieces were tiny.

I don’t want to be like Mary Whitehouse - a stuckist who’s scared of the modern world.

I remember when the 1992 song, Television, the Drug of the Nation, by the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy came out, with anti-goggle-box lyrics; “Breeding ignorance, feeding radiation”.

God, that feels dated now. It seems like we’ve got bigger worries than tellies. 

Not that I blame parents. I totally get why most allow their offspring to have smartphones.

There is an incredible amount of peer pressure.  They ALL have phones from about ten up, sometimes earlier. It’s become a right of passage, like getting ears pierced. 

My nieces were counting down until they got their phones. 

It’s not all negative. When they become more independent, it’s easier to stay in constant contact with home. They also have an answer to everything at their fingertips.

They never have to be bored, like my generation. I remember sometimes resorting to playing Swingball on my own. I was that stultified.

However, I think that the bad stuff, for those under 14, might be outweighing the good. 

We are complicit. I know, when I’m on hols with the family, and the kids are quiet. You think, ‘ah, so peaceful’, as you find time to do your own scrolling and messaging.

However, it’s witnessing the pervasive level of addiction that freaks me out. My nieces - like most kids their age - NEED their phones. 

They’re always begging their parents for more time, though they try to restrict it. 

Also, their concentration spans are low.  I blame that on smartphones. because I can recognise that change in myself.

It’s hard to commit to any nugget of input that’s longer than five seconds. 

My thoughts are restless and prefer to flutter, rather than settle on anything. That’s why there’s now a commonly used abbreviation TLDR - ‘too long, didn’t read it’.

Although she seems to have given up on books, which seem to be the first things to go once kids get phones, I’m glad that one of the youngest still has hobbies that don’t involve scrolling. 

She mainly enjoys playing benign games - even if she has to watch a million Temu adverts, just to get through one free session - and I hope it stays that way. 

But, the second eldest is totally hooked. 

The teenage hours that are lost to smartphones. It’s incredible. She rarely switches off. It’s like her pals, frenemies and enemies, are in the same room, all the time. 

Sometimes I feel like grabbing her phone, and throwing it as far as I can. 

Snapchat is so huge among her age group. It’s used to connect, have fun, chat up, pester or bully. Anything goes. Who are the people she’s talking to? Some are known, but other random names pop-up, asking for pics and information. 

It seems this is the norm now. She’s blase about it. I find the anonymity sinister.

Then there’s TikTok. I’m probably this platform’s eldest user. 

It’s great for silly dog videos, and I love the viral dancing trends, which the girls sometimes make me join in on. I just hope they destroy the evidence. 

Still, I know from my own personal use, how, behind that fun veneer, much of the content feeds insecurity.

This bounces off my ancient elephant hide skin, but probably not young people’s. 

It’s thanks to this platform that I know about ‘septum arms’ - when a woman looks good, apart from her upper arms. Really. And that ‘violin hips’ - instead of rounded ones - are undesirable. Then there are the filters that create air-brushed perfection. 

The strange AI generated stories, and the subtle misinformation that’s spread. You have to do a lot of scrolling to dodge the darkness. 

Perhaps I’m too cynical, but I worry what all this is doing to young minds.

It’s probably a bit late for my nieces, who are well into their smartphone years.

Still, I think these devices should be regarded with more caution.

And if you got this far, well done, you are one of the few who are still immune to TLDR.

www.smartphonefreechildhood.co.uk