"Parent's jaws are on the floor," says Warwickshire mum campaigning for smartphone free childhoods

Over a thousand parents in Warwickshire are signing a pact online to create a smartphone free childhood for their children. Children and parents from over 160 schools in the region are taking part in a national campaign to encourage children to only access smartphone devices once they are 14.

This is part of a national Smartphone Free Childhood campaign which has received over 200,000 signatures from parents across the UK, wanting to minimise their child's use of smartphones.

Charlotte Ashton is a mum of two in Warwickshire and is also the regional lead for the campaign. Charlotte has been telling us what the main aims of the national campaign are in Warwickshire.

Charlotte says: "We want to make it the new norm for parents not to give their children a smartphone until at least the end of Year Nine. We also want to say no to social media until our children are at least 16. We're also supporting schools to genuinely remove smartphones from the school day.

"The reason behind these goals is that we need to alleviate the crippling peer pressure that we are under as parents and that our children are under as well, to have a smartphone.

"We know smartphones are harming children in a really alarming variety of ways, as parents our jaws are on the floor when we hear what social media is feeding them.

"At the moment we're stuck between a rock and a hard place as parents. We know smartphones are damaging our children but if we don't give them one, we risk socially isolating them.

"We need to take collective action as parents and teachers to create a new social norm. One where children are protected from the the dangers of the digital world, in the same way that they're protected against addictive substances and activities that are dangerous for children in real life."

Safer Phones Bill

Earlier this month a Labour MP had to water down plans for a social media ban on under 16s and a smartphone ban in schools for his safer phones bill to get government support.

Labour MP Josh MacAlister had originally planned for his Safer Phones legislation to include a ban on the devices in classrooms, a well as raising the "digital age of consent" at which social media can be used to 16.

But in the face of ministerial opposition, the bill now just calls for chief medical officers to review the evidence on screen-based harms within a year - before deciding if there should be higher age restrictions on access to apps such as TikTok and Snapchat.

The French and Norwegian governments have set a 15-year age limit while last year Australia passed a world-first law banning under 16s from having social media accounts.

It is understood that Technology Secretary Peter Kyle wanted to make sure the Online Safety Act, which was passed by MPs in 2023 and is being implemented in stages this year, is completed first before any potential social media ban.

This intends to protect young people from illegal and harmful content with fines for tech companies who break the rules.

The government has opposed a smartphone ban in schools, saying this should be up to headteachers.

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