Inside the town that banned kids from having mobile phones – the results were astounding
IT is one of the toughest decisions faced by parents – when to give in to their younger children’s constant demands for a smartphone.
Startling recent figures from communications regulator Ofcom show that 20 per cent of kids have a smartphone by the age of three, and that rises to 55 per cent between the ages of eight to 11.
But the residents of one seaside town in Ireland have decided they do not want their little ones to spend their most formative years peering into a tiny LCD screen.
The entire parent population of Greystones in County Wicklow got together to agree not to buy smartphones for their kids until they were in secondary school.
All eight primary schools in the town, 15 miles south of Dublin, had already stopped pupils from bringing the electronic devices into the learning environment.
But the school parent associations then went further by initiating a voluntary ban among themselves.
It is a revolutionary approach which would likely be welcomed by parents in Britain as well.
A survey by Vodafone this week revealed that choosing when to give a child their first mobile phone was as tough for some parents as selecting the right school to send their children to.
And, in July, the United Nation’s education, science and culture agency Unesco called for phones to be banned from classrooms across the world.
Mental health crisis
When The Sun visited Greystones, the locals were grateful for the chance to free youngsters from the pressure to be permanently connected to social media.
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Anja Schubert, who has lived in Greystones for 25 years, says: “I signed up.
“It gives me another three years for my daughter not to have a smartphone.
“I suppose the majority of people would feel under pressure to buy a phone for their child because their peers have it.
“So the more kids that don’t have one, the easier it is for us.”
More than 70 per cent of the parents in Anja’s daughter’s class signed up to the agreement not to buy a smartphone for their kids.
Once the children reach secondary school, only five per cent of parents say are willing to hold out against the tide.
Greystones mum Caroline Nolan signed the agreement with her two boys’ infants school, St. Laurence’s.
She won’t be giving her sons a smartphone until they finish sixth class, which is for 11 to 12-year-olds.
She says: “As a family, we’ve spoken openly about how they wouldn’t have phones until the end of sixth class going into first year.
“And that’s something that we are quite strict about.
“But I think collectively in the community, with everyone doing it, it takes the pressure off.”
The rise in social media has been linked to the mental health crisis facing teenagers.
An NHS report last November revealed that a quarter of 17 to 19- year-olds in England have a probable mental health disorder, which was up from one in six a year earlier.
Dad Johnny Hayden told how the Greystones area was hit with two recent suicides as a result of bullies.
And he feels the smartphone clampdown will benefit young people’s mental health.
He says: “Two girls recently committed suicide over bullying in the area.
“It’s terrifying because it’s something that happens between the social world and your kid — something that you really have no part in, because they don’t want you to see it.
“It’s something that scares you, really.”
The Greystones parent believes that the first year of secondary school is a good age to be given a phone.
He said: “I think teenagers’ social life has changed where they need a phone.
“But generally, my rule is: only get a smartphone when they go into first year.
“I’ve got three girls.
“My youngest hasn’t got a phone.
“She uses her mother’s to play games but she doesn’t have her own phone until she’s in first year.”
Other towns in Ireland are now considering implementing a similar policy.
Natalie Coffey, who lives in Kilcoole two miles from Greystones, hopes to see the ban enforced in her son’s school and further afield.
She said: “I would be delighted if it was brought in that area now.
“It makes it the same for everybody, so there’s no real conversation about it.
“It’s just done across all levels. I think it’s a great idea.”
Fine Gael politician Mary Seery Kearney said the collaboration should be a model for a wider roll- out across the country.
She said: “By coming together, parents, teachers and principals devised and introduced this code, which means all children in the area who attend the same schools won’t experience the dreaded “Fear Of Missing Out” — aka FOMO — by not having a phone or tablet. None of their classmates will either.”
Plenty of other countries have already taken the lead.
France banned phones in classrooms in 2018, Italy did so last year, while Holland and Finland brought in restrictions this year.
But one Greystone mum admitted to being divided about restricting mobile phone use.
Liz Keogh says: “In a way, smartphones are ruining children’s lives.
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“It can be good and it can be bad.
“But if children are being left out, or if they feel excluded by classmates, it can be amplified by the phone and them feeling so alone at times.”
