A Frome resident is campaigning for parents to be more aware of the dangers of smartphones and social media use among children as part of a UK-wide movement.
Cordelia Fellowes, an independent youth mentor, is an ambassador of the Smartphone Free Childhood movement, which is a nationwide parent-led campaign which advocates delaying children’s smartphone access until 14 and social media access until 16.
Parents are encouraged to sign the ‘Parent Pact’ and join others in their area in pledging to delay their children’s device use. The pact has 158,300 signatures nationwide.
“97% of 12-year-olds own a smartphone now,” said Cordelia. “The main goal of this campaign is to put pressure on tech companies to improve parental restrictions on phones because most children can get around them. We also want to put pressure on governments to ban phones in schools.”
The movement is gaining traction in Frome. Avanti Park School has 82 signatures, the second-highest in Somerset after Taunton Preparatory School (105).
“Oakfield Academy has 32 and Selwood Academy has 18 signatures, Frome College has one parent who has signed it and so do a couple of the primary schools in Frome,” said Cordelia. “As a whole, Frome needs a boost and we need to be spreading the word more.”
Cordelia is in talks with Frome Medical Practice to promote the movement and is available to deliver talks in schools to parents, teachers and carers about the dangers of smartphone and social media usage among children. She recently gave a talk at Oakfield Academy.“There are 35 schools in the UK that are banning smartphones and there are private schools, like Eton College, that have also banned them but there are a lot of schools that are resistant to doing it because they worry about the pushback,” said Cordelia.
“I know doctors generally are really concerned with what excessive tech is doing to our children. The obvious is increasing anxiety, depression and self-harming, these things are now undeniably linked to excessive tech. There are other contributing factors, of course there is, but it’s not a niche opinion now, it definitely is linked.
“More conversations need to happen; it’s not about judging anybody. We were all mis-sold these things and we were all told that they would make life easier, they were educational, they are safe and they are not. They are demonstrably not.”
Cordelia delivers talks through One Collective Power, a company supporting the campaign by providing digital wellbeing support for families, schools and businesses. The movement was founded by Nova Eden, who has transformed High Barnet into the UK’s first ‘smartphone-free borough’ with over 400 schools banning devices.
Cordelia added, “Smartphone Free Childhood did an anonymous poll which showed teachers are really frustrated trying to compete with children checking their phones and social media accumulatively over the day, even in schools where phones are banned.
“As a youth mentor I have watched the young people I work with struggle increasingly more. They are all getting unbelievably high anxiety; they are all becoming obsessed about their appearance in a way that is obsessive. Also, they are just heavily distracted.”
To learn more or join the movement, visit the website https://www.smartphonefreechildhood.org/
