Resources
Starting the conversation about smartphones and social media with other parents can seem daunting. Here are a range of resources to support those conversations and raise awareness of the issues. There are also links for support and advice.
It’s important talk about this without blame or judgement. Use positive language around giving children back opportunities and giving parents a real choice. Many parents will already share your concerns about smartphones and social media and will be glad to learn that that your child won’t be getting a smartphone. Knowing that your child won’t be getting a smartphone will hopefully encourage them to delay as well.
Please check for updated resources at Smartphone Free Childhood
Behind Our Screens
Behind Our Screens gathers and dissipates the experiences of young people growing up online in order to shape a better, safer future for the next generation.
https://www.behindourscreens.co.uk/about
Lucy Faithful Foundation
The Lucy Faithful Foundation works to protect children from sexual abuse, online and offline.
https://www.lucyfaithfull.org.uk/
Screen time - the scientific evidence of harm
Here is a summary of the scientific evidence on how screen time affects children’s development, with practical tips to manage it at home.
Artificial intelligence
With growing concerns about the risks of AI such as misinformation, emotional dependency and mental health effects on vulnerable users the Social Media Victims Law Center in the US have put together an in-depth guide covering the legal actions involving ChatGPT, along with the concerns being raised by families and individuals impacted.
Collective action
Smartphone Free Childhood
Join your local group delaying smartphones by signing the Parent Pact at Smartphone Free Childhood.
PAPAYA
PAPAYA offers workshhops and practical solutions to promote wellness and improved mental health in young people, helping them achieve a healthy balance with technology through either delaying smartphones or establishing good tech boundaries.
Safe Screens
Campaign group calling for regulatory change to protect children from the widespread harms of smartphones and social media.
Wait Until 8th
Based in the USA, Wait Until 8thwebsite has great resources and a blog.
Books
When we launched this site there were very few books on this subject. A plethora of relevant books have been published since then and we can’t possibly list them all here but here are just a few of the game-changers.
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
Psychologist Dr. Jonathan Haidt shows how the crisis in teen mental health was seeded by a decades-long shift from a play-based childhood to a phone-based childhood defined by over-supervision, structure, and fear in the real world but scant protection in the brutal online world.
The Healthy Selfie
Authored by Founder of Papaya Parents, Dr Susie Davies, The Healthy Selfie, is a vibrant, full-colour self-help book designed to inspire and encourage teens to have a healthy relationship with tech.
Wired Child: Reclaiming childhood in the digital age
Child psychologist Dr. Richard Freed explains why addictive so-called child-friendly technologies are depriving kids of joy in the real world.
https://richardfreed.com/wired-child/
Films
Childhood 2.0
A feature length documentary about the dangers of social media and its impact on childhood.
Our kids Online
An important documentary and the personal journey of two parents in NZ exploring what children are exposed to online with excellent advice for parents. Available to rent or buy on Vimeo.
https://www.ourkidsonline.info/
Mirror Mirror
This two-part documentary film from Australia is available for free on YouTube. It exposes the risks both children and adults face online.
The Great Hack
This documentary, available on Netflix, is about digital rights, information warfare and how data collected by social media and Cambridge Analytica has been used to manipulate political outcomes from Brixit to the election of Donald Trump.
The Social Dilemma
This documentary explains how social media is designed to be addictive and the social impacts of the algorithms it uses.
Tools for families and schools
Stamplo
Stamplo is a child-safe digital penpal platform. It supports closed, private networks for families, schools and organisations designed with children’s safety first.
Kids For Now promo video from 2023
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