Our town banned kids under 12 from using smartphones – the results have seen TV crews flock here from all over the world
A SMALL coastal town has banned kids under 12 from using smartphones, with the move attracting TV crews from around the world.
Parents with primary school age children in Greystone, County Wicklow, have all agreed not to give their kids devices which include smartphones, smart pads as well as access to social media apps like Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok and even WhatsApp.
The initiative was the brain child of Rachel Harper, the headteacher at St Patrick’s Primary School, who got in contact with the various parent associations at the eight schools in the area.
Ms Harper told last year: "You wouldn’t let your child open the door to a stranger, but giving them a smart phone is similar - at the click of a button they can reach adult material that’s far beyond their years and once they see it you can’t take it back.
"Nobody wants their child to be the odd one out, or be different, but now that’s not case.
"As the children have said to me, there’s a sense of fairness that everyone is the same.”
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Everyone signed up to the ‘No Smart Device Voluntary Code’ on May 26, 2023, and results of the move could be seen just two weeks later.
Ms Harper said everybody had been positive about it and there had been a lot of relief in the parents.
She said they had been concerned they have been “too over protective or extreme” but that had disappeared with the school leading the initiative.
Not having a smartphone is now the new normal for children under 11 right across the town.
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Ms Harper said: "Childhood is getting shorter and shorter and this is a way to prolong that too, it’s all about getting outside and meeting your friends.
"It’s our job to protect them.”
She added they had children from Ukraine in the village, so the youngsters were aware of the war but she warned if they googled the conflict they could see violent images.
Ms Harper said they were just not “emotionally ready” for a smartphone.
She emphasised that while St Patrick’s was pro-technology it also wanted to protect children from the possible dangers lurking on the internet.
Ms Harper told : “We’re not against the supervised use of phones, or children being allowed a simple phone to be contacted after school.
“This is about access to apps such as Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok and Discord, to name but a few.”
The ban on smartphones is part of a bigger scheme called ‘It Takes a Village’ which covers the entire Greystone and Delgany community and aims to improve children’s mental health.
Ms Harper became motivated to do something after she noticed a rise in anxiety among her pupils, where, in some cases, children were refusing to go to school.
Before the scheme was implemented, the school sent out a survey to 800 parents
It revealed that 54 per cent of parents and all the principals had seen a rise in anxiety among the children.
The scheme has become a huge talking point in the area with cafes and restaurants filled with discussion about it.
Ms Harper described the response being “crazy”.
She also revealed teachers from around the country had been in touch, saying they hoped to follow her lead.
Ms Harper also said the media interest in the idea had caught fire and even someone from Netflix had been in touch wanting to make a documentary about the idea.
Greystone isn’t the first town opting for a blanket ban on social media.
A rural village in India goes offline for 90 minutes every day.
Villagers in Mohite Vadgaon, in the Sangli district of West India, are reminded of the ban by a siren going off at 7pm.
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The population of 3,000 farmers and sugar mill workers then have to switch off their phones, internet and TVs.
Yamato City, Japan, banned walking with smartphones in 2020, after residents agreed with the mayor's view that shuffling with your head down was “simply dangerous”.
