‘Parents know they are not alone’: UK pact to withhold smartphones until 14 gathers pace
So when the Smartphone Free Childhood (SFC) movement launched an online pledge to withhold the devices from children until they are at least 14, thousands of parents saw an opportunity to gather moral support for looming arguments.
“It’s a way for parents to know they are not alone in this,” said Mike Lawrence, 45, one of the signatories to the pact at Law primary school. The North Berwick school has the most sign-ups in Scotland, at 194 children.
Lawrence said the pact and its leaderboard – which features school names but does not identify parents or children – would help “in those moments of reckoning, when it comes up with children in the household”.
The pact, he said, had given renewed impetus to a WhatsApp group formed a few months after SFC was established this year. It was set up by two friends, Daisy Greenwell and Clare Fernyhough, seeking to support each other in their decision to hold off buying their children smartphones, with their WhatsApp group blossoming into a network around the UK that has enabled the pact sign-up campaign.
A quarter of British schools have signed the pact, reaching more than 8,100 last week, according to SFC, with the top 30 sign-ups dominated by primary schools. About 37,000 parents have signed, representing more than 56,000 children.
