Let’s Talk Schools: the Smartphone Free movement is gathering pace

As an educational psychologist, I spend most of my time consulting with parents and schools about children’s learning, development and mental health. It’s only recently that I’ve been exploring the concept of “digital wellbeing,” defined by Google as, “a state of satisfaction that people achieve when digital technology supports their intentions”.

I interpret this to mean technology should be working for us, and for our children, and not against our values and desired goals for our family. Like most parents, I want my three young children to have positive physical, emotional and mental wellbeing – and now I’ve realised I need to add digital wellbeing to this list.

As part of digital wellbeing we need to understand our children’s relationship with and use of smartphones. Recently there has been a surge in discussion and debate about the impact of smartphones on children’s mental health, initiated in part by Jonathan Haidt’s new book The Anxious Generation and Ofcom’s report that nearly a quarter of 3 to 5-year-olds have their own mobiles. Researchers, mental health professionals, schools, families, tech companies and governments are asking how the use of smartphones impacts our children’s mental health, education and development? And whether there is enough evidence to take action.

A recent Times article on smartphones quoted Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore of Cambridge University, best known for research on the teenage brain, who concluded, “When we’re talking about child development, I think erring on the side of caution is better. Regulate and restrict first, and then open things up if you find evidence that it’s not harmful”. I would agree. While more research is needed, what we have is pointing in one direction – delay use of smartphones and social media for children and support them to create healthy digital habits with the technology they do use.

I have been working with Partnership for Jewish Schools (PaJeS) to provide our community with enhanced understanding of the debate and signposting families and schools to resources and opportunities that can have a positive effect on children and young people’s wellbeing.

In September, over 500 parents joined a webinar on children and smartphones I co-delivered with Beth Kerr, former Immanuel College deputy head who is now a consultant in digital wellbeing. In October, I produced a guide, Our Schools and Smartphones, shared with Jewish schools to help them navigate the evidence and give ideas to effect change both within schools and their wider communities.

As a parent, I support the Smartphone Free Childhood (SFC) movement, which in just a few months has grown “from a viral thing to an actual thing”. More than 74,000 parents across 9,600 schools have signed the SFC Parent Pact, to delay giving their children smartphones until the end of year 9.

SFC has recognised that many parents want to change the norm, so that a smartphone before secondary school is no longer a rite of passage, but find they cannot do it alone. At last count, over 400 parents are connected via SFC WhatsApp groups in Jewish primary and secondary schools.

I support SFC’s North London Regional Lead to effect change locally.

Over 60 North London schools are revising their phone policies to become smartphone free, including several Jewish primaries and secondaries. Akiva School recently hosted a successful SFC event for around 70 headteachers, educational leaders and advisers.

I am actively connecting with SFC’s parent representatives and educational leaders across Jewish schools, with the hope that we can lead the way as a community, with schools and parents working together to improve the digital wellbeing of our children. Smartphones will be part of our and our children’s lives — let’s ensure they are working for us and not against us.

‘Our Children and Smartphones’ webinar and handout is available at www.pajes.org.uk For more details on Gemma Handelsman, see handelsmanpsychology.com