Smartphone Free Childhood

?? ONE FINAL PUSH - email your MP to back the Safer Phones Bill ?? Next Friday, March 7th, MPs will debate the Safer Phones Bill in Parliament. This is a pivotal moment — if too few turn up, the Bill could fizzle out. Word on the street is the Government is really listening, and everything’s to play for. You’ve helped make that happen. Because of this movement — because of you — they’re finally considering taking action. Now we need to get MPs in the room to get this done. So we’re asking – one last time – for you to email your MP to remind them to attend (they can read the final Bill when it’s published before the debate). We’ve drafted the email for you already so it only takes a minute, but that minute could make a lifetime of difference for a generation of kids. ?? LINK TO EMAIL TOOL IS IN THE COMMENTS - IT TAKES 60 SECONDS Imagine looking back and knowing that together, we helped change the law. That we stood up for children, for their mental health, for their childhoods—against a tech industry that has put profit over our kids wellbeing for far too long. This is the moment. Let’s make it count. With hope, Team SFC ? #SmartphoneFreeChildhood #SaferPhones #MentalHealth #UKGovernment #Parliament #ChangeTheLaw #SFC #CollectiveAction #ChildhoodMatters

?? HUGE NEWS: Barnet becomes UK's first smartphone-free borough?? ? Today the entire London borough of Barnet has announced that they will be making all their schools smartphone-free. From September 2025, 103 primary schools in the borough will not allow smartphones to be brought to school and 23 secondary schools will commit to working towards removing smartphones entirely from the school day ?? This?groundbreaking policy?was made possible by collaboration between bold school leaders, Barnet Borough Council, local MP Dan Tomlinson, and the?SFC community, led by our Regional Leader for North London, the unstoppable?Nova Eden (aka Super Nova)!???? ? When fully implemented, it means that over 63,000 children will benefit from a seven-hour window in the day when they can learn, socialise and grow, free from addictive algorithms. And that’s not all… ? Heads across the borough will be sending letters to parents advising they wait until 14 to buy their child a smartphone, and 16 to allow social media. ? And from 2025, all new Year 7 students in Barnet will be prohibited from bringing smartphones to school throughout their entire secondary education up to Year 11. The first policy of its kind in the UK. ? It follows a similar announcement by Ealing Borough Council last month, bringing the?running total of schools in North London that are going smartphone free to over 250! This is what’s possible when tenacity and zeal meets bold leadership from school leaders and local councils: groundbreaking new policies that start to peel the tentacles of Big Tech’s addictive algorithms off our children’s lives and educations – and will have a profound impact on a generation, in the classroom and beyond. We never cease to be amazed at what this movement, and all the passionate people within it, are capable of achieving. The time is ripe for change – and together we’re actually making it happen. Team SFC ??

Let’s round off the week on a high note ?? This week we’ve seen another incredible win for SFC grassroots parent power up in Solihull. ?? Parents in our community persuaded 49 schools in the region to write to parents urging them to delay getting smartphones for their kids, and ran a sold out panel event for over 300 people to discuss the issue on Tuesday. Headteacher Tom Beveridge at Alderbrook School, who is part of our SFC school leaders group, has introduced a voluntary smartphone locker scheme for Year 7 students. Half the year group are now using them with pupils reporting that it makes them feel ‘better and less stressed’. We believe all schools should be smartphone-free by default. It’s a no brainer - giving kids a six hour window in which to learn and socialise free from precision engineered distraction machines and toxic algorithms. What do you think? Let us know in the comments! #smartphonefreechildhood #smartphonefreeschools

?? ?? ?? This is what this movement is all about. Thoughtful, determined parents coming together to take collective action and create change where they are. Good news stories like this from SFC members across the country keep coming in 2025. The compounding effect of determined local activism is real... and it all adds up to the much bigger cultural change we're working towards. Together we really can change the status quo. Brick (phone) by brick (phone).

Is social media and kids the least controversial controversial subject ever?! A new survey from respected think tank More in Common reveals the extraordinary strength of support for tougher action on kids and social media from voters across the country. ?? Getting cross party support on any issue is tough in these polarised times. ?? Getting voters of all major parties to emphatically agree on a supposedly controversial topic is genuinely remarkable. ??♀? And actually proves this issue isn’t that controversial at all (despite what Big Tech's lobbyists would have us believe). As Luke Tryl, UK director of More in Common, said: “Support for raising the age at which young people can use social media to 16 is pretty much as close to a slam dunk as you can get in public opinion popularity terms. This is a Government that desperately needs public opinion and policy wins – and raising the age of access to social media would be one of them.” Our take on social media and kids is simple: giant global corporations shouldn’t be able to make vast profits from selling knowingly unsafe and addictive products to children. They tell us there’s no evidence their platforms are harmful to kids (!) We say show us the evidence they’re safe. Until social media platforms make their products safe and non-addictive for children; we should apply the precautionary principle and not let them market their products to children. Just like we would in any other industry. The stakes are too high not to act. #smartphonefreechildhood #moreincommon

Watching 2025’s global tech developments unfold has been illuminating for anyone interested in keeping kids safe online. ? Zuck’s fired his fact checkers. ?? Musk’s calling the shots in the White House. ???? Trump wants 50% ownership of Tiktok. ???? And the who’s who of Silicon Valley are MAGA-ing up and strapping in for the low-regulation ride. Watching on in Westminster, it seems our politicians have little choice but to dance to the broligarch's dystopian drumbeat; because Big Tech’s investment, jobs and AI inspired vision of the future trounces all. So we find ourselves in the absurd situation where whether or not our tweenage daughters are deluged with disappearing dick pics is a question of geopolitics, not ethics. In order for the UK to stay relevant on a global stage, it seems we’re going to have to accept evermore addictive algorithms, more harmful content, more hate speech, more misinformation, more toxic ideologies and the rewiring of a whole generation’s neurobiology. As depressing as this sounds, it actually makes things beautifully simple for our movement. Because the solution to this increasingly complex geopolitical situation lies with all of us. ?? If social media isn’t a safe space for kids, let’s protect them from it until they’re 16. ?? If smartphones are the gateway to toxic algorithms and addictive apps, let’s delay delay delay, until our kids are at least 14. And it’s already working. All across the UK, SFC members are rejecting the tired, spiritless narrative that ‘this is just the way life is now’. From Belfast to Skipton to Essex, people everywhere are rising up to say ‘our kids deserve better.’ And not in some distant tomorrow when our kids are grown. We want this right now – today. Just last night in Hove, hundreds of people attended a sold out panel event organised by SFC Regional Leaders featuring local teachers, mental health specialists, police and young people (and attended by Tech Secretary Peter Kyle, who handily happens to be their MP). It’s local grassroots action like this that is going to reclaim childhood from the broligarchs and their toxic algorithms. Changing culture locally, collectively and meaningfully. Brick (phone) by brick (phone). The imagination, dynamism and downright brilliance of the individuals in this movement never ceases to amaze us. Let’s keep making childhood great again. Team SFC

Before we log off for Christmas, we want to say a humungous and heartfelt thanks to all of you for coming together to create this magical whirlwind of a movement with us in 2024. What began life as one WhatsApp group in February, has evolved into the world’s largest movement of parents rising up to protect childhood from Big Tech. And it’s all been supercharged by the unstoppable power of parental love. ???? We couldn’t have done any of it without our community's collective energy, dynamism, dedication and imagination. Together, in just 10 months, we’ve achieved an eye-popping amount. We have: ?? Grown a community of 200,000 parents, all united in the belief that childhood’s too short to be spent on a smartphone ?? Helped shape a new national (and international) media conversation about kids and smartphones ?? Built one of the world’s largest?WhatsApp networks, with thriving regional communities spanning Britain and beyond ???????? Brought?84,000 parents?together since September to sign Pacts to delay getting kids smartphones, in 35% of schools across the UK ?? Influenced hundreds of schools to change their smartphone policies ??? Taken this issue to the heart of Westminster by helping inspire and guide the development of the?Safer Phones Bill ? Written over?30,000 letters?to 93% of MPs across the country, urging them to push the government to do more ?? Launched?SFC offshoots?in 27 countries, on every continent, from Nigeria to the Netherlands, Australia to Argentina We’re admittedly a tiny bit biased, but we think 2024 could go down in history as the year that parents everywhere finally began to fight back against the irresistible hold the world's most powerful corporations have on childhood. And it will definitely rank as the weirdest, wildest and most wonderful of our working lives. We wish you all the happiest of Christmases – and stay tuned for a storming 2025. We’ve got big plans. And together we’re powerful?? Daisy, Joe, Clare, Nancy & Joe S (aka Team SFC)

We're mega hyped for the Swiped documentary to premiere on?Channel4?on Wednesday eve, fronted by Matt and Emma Willis and Dr. Rangan Chatterjee. It follows a bunch of Year 7 kids at The Stanway School in Colchester, Essex as they take part in an experiment to give up their smartphones for 3 weeks. Conducted in conjunction with University of York, the pupils are monitored to see what effect this had on their brains, looking at sleep, attention, anxiety, depression and social connectedness. We saw ep.1 at a screening last week, and genuinely laughed out loud, cried a bit, got goosebumps, and felt a rejuvenated zeal for our cause, along with the rest of the auditorium. The documentary backs up all the core reasons why this grassroots movement launched spontaneously in February. It’s a whizzpopping whistlestop tour of this new frontier in parenting, and you can’t watch it without thinking ‘we urgently need to fix this’. Tune in on Weds 11th and Thurs 12th Dec, 8pm, Channel 4. #c4swiped? #smartphonefreechildhood #theparentpact

Prince saw the future in 1999 ??. 25 years ago Mark Zuckerberg was still in high school and the iPhone wasn't even a twinkle in Steve Jobs’ eye. So this speech from Prince now looks like a prophecy. Today, the question of whether we’re using tech or it’s using us has never been more pertinent, or complex. But the evidence that smartphones and social media are rewiring childhood is mounting every day. That’s why we say delay, delay, delay. Let’s give kids a few more years to learn and grow away from toxic algorithms and 24/7 internet access in their pockets. The battle for their soul can wait. And RIP Prince ?? #smartphonefreechildhood

Sometimes it takes a straight shooting Aussie to tell it like it is ???? . Australia's PM is ploughing ahead with plans to raise the minimum age for social media to 16. And there’s something symbolic about a no nonsense Aussie being the first leader of a global power taking such a common sense stance for kids. Because?this issue really isn’t that complicated. The fact is, a few ultra powerful global corporations are currently making vast fortunes from marketing intentionally addictive and knowingly unsafe products to children. This would be unthinkable in any other industry. It should be unthinkable in this one too. It’s simple: businesses that want to profit from our children must prove their products are suitable for children. Until they can, let’s do the sensible thing and give our kids the opportunity to learn, grow and develop away from their algorithms and devices. Big Tech’s academic acolytes and PR mouthpieces tell us there’s not enough evidence of harm to tighten regulation. The studies they fund say there’s nothing to see. But even if you accept their doublespeak and misdirection, it’s time to flip the narrative. The burden of proof must be on the social media giants to prove their products are safe for kids, not the other way around. Until they can, we must apply the precautionary principle. For the past decade young people all over the world have been lab rats in a giant technological and sociological experiment, with profound consequences for them, their families and society as a whole. The stakes are too high to let Big Tech get away with another decade of denial, delay and deflection. We commend Anthony Albanese for doing the blindingly obvious - and standing up for children, not Big Tech’s bottom line. And while we wait for our government to follow suit, let’s get together and create the change our kids need today. #smartphonefreechildhood #theparentpact #thesaferphonesbill