Parents can find their child has excessive screen habits, leading to poor sleep patterns, less time to play with friends, exposure to harmful content and poor mental health. In February 2024 a couple of parents decided to make a pledge to delay getting their child a Smartphone, believing that childhood is too short to be spent on a Smartphone. Initially they set up a WhatsApp group to bring like-minded parents together; it quickly spread and now there is a Smartphone Free Childhood WhatsApp community in every area of the UK, including an active community in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

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Peer pressure is strong on the issue and parents feel compelled to buy one for their child so they aren’t left out. With this in mind, Smartphone Free Childhood launched a pact in September 2024 which allows families to pledge to delay getting their child a Smartphone until 14, the age recommended by Mental Health Professionals. Parents can then see the results of the pact which are anonymous but detail the results by the school name and year group, which reassures a child that they will not be the only one without a Smartphone. The movement is gaining momentum and Virgin Media O2 have reported their sales of non-Smartphones or basic/retro style mobile phones have doubled in the last year as parents are choosing these for their children instead.

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Jo, a parent from mid-Cornwall described how the pact had helped her: "No one in my child's school had signed the pact so my school didn't appear on the results. I signed as the first person for my child’s school and then told other parents at school about it. Now lots of other families have signed too, so it's been helpful for my child."

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Since the pact launch, parents of over 880 children in half of the schools across the region from the Five Islands Academy on the Isles of Scilly to Sir Robert Geffrey's school near Saltash have signed the pact to delay.

If interested please look at https://parentpact.smartphonefreechildhood.co.uk

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