{"id":221721,"date":"2025-12-08T11:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T11:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/221721\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T11:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T11:17:09","slug":"smartphone-free-parenting-movement-takes-off-in-ireland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/221721\/","title":{"rendered":"Smartphone-free parenting movement takes off in Ireland \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Parents<\/a> in Ireland are banding together in a growing movement to advocate for children to go smartphone free, amid discussions of online safety and wellbeing. <\/p>\n

Emer Carty, from south Dublin, is one of more than 1,000 parents who swap advice and stories with like-minded individuals in a group called Smartphone Free Childhood Ireland. <\/p>\n

The initiative, which started to take off in Ireland last May, is part of a global network, with sister groups in the US, Australia, Denmark, France, Germany and several other countries.<\/p>\n

From the latest research and news on digital risks and developments in digital safety regulation, to alternative starter phones and tips on how to manage smartphone use, the group chat has become a space where parents can feel supported in their decision to opt for a smartphone-free childhood.<\/p>\n

Carty \u2013 who has three children aged six, 12 and 14 \u2013 was inspired to help organise an Irish branch after the \u201cpeer pressure\u201d she saw unfold when her daughter was among the only children in her class to not be gifted a phone for her Confirmation in sixth class.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want any parent to have to go through what I went through at Confirmation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n, Ireland\u2019s online regulator, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Australian eSafety commissioner last week, in a commitment to collaborate on online safety.<\/p>\n

The agreement comes as tech giant Meta said it was starting to remove under-16s in Australia from Instagram, Threads and Facebook in advance of the country\u2019s world-first youth social media ban<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Big online platforms, also including TikTok and YouTube, will be required to block underage users in Australia by December 10th, when the new law comes into force.<\/p>\n

Plans to verify the ages of children who use social media in Ireland will be considered in the coming weeks by Government. <\/p>\n

Welcoming the news, Carty said she feels hopeful the tide is changing in Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a daughter now in sixth class, two years on, and hardly any of the class have a phone, so things are really shifting from the work that has been done,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her children\u2019s primary school has since seen 95 per cent of parents take a pledge to delay smartphone use for their children until secondary school or ideally 16 years old. <\/p>\n

Her eldest daughter uses a Balance phone, which has the appearance of a smartphone without the risks of social media, games or adult content. <\/p>\n

This compromise is one a lot of parents in the group are opting for. It allows for communication while lowering screen time, and allows certain apps, such as Whatsapp, to facilitate this.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Barry Andrews: The pressure to get a smartphone for my teen daughter was immense. We found a compromiseOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In the US, a growing number of similar-minded parents are opting to reinstall landlines to facilitate an alternative form of communication for their children.<\/p>\n

A piece published in the Atlantic earlier this year shared the results of an experiment in Portland, Maine, where one parent who was reluctant to give her 10-year-old child a smartphone chose to install a landline. Before she knew it, between 15 and 20 families in the area had done the same for their children in what the Atlantic called a \u201cretro bubble\u201d.<\/p>\n

SCFI has created its own online pledge for parents who want to anonymously commit to delaying giving their child a smartphone \u201cfor as long as possible, up to 16 years of age\u201d.<\/p>\n

Already more than 3,700 pupils across 505 schools \u2013 primary and secondary \u2013 have been registered in Ireland through the SFCI website. On completing the pledge, parents can see how many others in their child\u2019s school have also signed up.<\/p>\n

Lauren Swiney, a cognitive scientist and parent from Donegal, \u201cstumbled across\u201d SFCI after attending a meeting on digital safety held by Letterkenny Educate Together School, where interest was expressed in setting up a similar pledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see that there was a national movement, where there was already a system in place for signing the pledge and keeping track of how many people had signed it, and an incredible amount of resources, was a huge help to me at the beginning,\u201d said Swiney.<\/p>\n

As a parent to a six-year-old and step-parent to a 24-year-old, Swiney has \u201ckind of been around this once before\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen how important it is to get in advance of these things and have a plan,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Describing smartphone use among children as \u201ca public health crisis\u201d, Swiney believes many parents are looking for a conversation around it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have to realise now that the power is with us. Just like a lot of other stuff we decided wasn\u2019t good for kids, like driving and working, this is something that we\u2019re going to have to row back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swiney has ordered a voice-messaging device called Karri for her son, who \u201cdoes a fair amount of free play out in the countryside around our house\u201d. This will allow her to know where he is and that he\u2019s safe, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about being anti-tech or killjoys, there are a lot of other alternatives out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dangers of child safety online are something David Corkery and his wife from east Cork have been keenly aware of \u201cever since we had kids\u201d.<\/p>\n

Their children are now five and eight years old. One moment on a family holiday was a wake-up call: Corkery remembers \u201csitting at breakfast and looking around, and every table had an iPad out\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery toddler was just glued to it,\u201d he said, adding \u201cI don\u2019t want to parent shame, I understand it is tough being a parent and you do need those moments of peace and down time.\u201d <\/p>\n

While there is some time-restricted tablet use among their children, he said plenty of parental controls are in place to ensure it\u2019s a safe experience.<\/p>\n

For Corkery, smartphone addiction is an issue \u201cwe\u2019ve been sleepwalking into for the past 15 years\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cSmartphones and devices have become so commonplace … I think we haven\u2019t really stopped to reckon with the effects of them until recently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Byrne, also part of SFCI\u2019s east Cork regional group, has two children aged five and nine years old. For Byrne, the initiative is all about \u201cmaking small changes slowly\u201d through \u201ccommunity effort\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Could Ireland follow Australia and ban under-16s from social media?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you work individually it\u2019s very hard to have a change, so I think it has to be a community effort. That\u2019s why I wanted to join Smartphone Free Childhood Ireland,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make it normal to not have smartphones when you\u2019re a child.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parents in Ireland are banding together in a growing movement to advocate for children to go smartphone free,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,77218,18,13,14,6,19,876,17,11,12,15,16,1722,5,2973,1150,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-221721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-cybersafekids","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-instagram","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-meta","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-parenting","25":"tag-tiktok","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115683671703833029","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}