Community Smartphone Pledge: An open letter from Greenlanes PGA
October 2024
An open letter from Greenlanes PGA to the Parents Associations of:
- Belgrove Boys Senior School, Clontarf
- Belgrove Girls Senior School, Clontarf
- Belgrove Boys Junior School, Clontarf
- Belgrove Girls Junior School, Clontarf
- Howth Road National School, Clontarf
- Killester Raheny Clontarf Educate Together National School, Killester
- St Brigids BNS, Killester
- St Brigids GNS, Killester
- Springdale NS, Raheny
- Scoil Assaim BNS, Raheny
- Scoil Aine GNS, Raheny
- Scoil Neasáin, Raheny
To whom it may concern,
With data now available on the world’s first generation of teenagers to grow up with a smartphone, the tide is turning on giving children smartphones too early. Unequivocal research is finding that despite the benefits of keeping in touch, young people’s mental health and wellbeing is increasingly being damaged by smartphone usage, particularly exposure to social media.
A global study published last year found a strong link between the age a child first starts using a smartphone and their mental health as young adults. Other recent Irish developments, such as secondary schools banning smartphones and the IMO suggesting a smartphone ban for under 16s, means parents are increasingly considering delaying giving their child a smartphone.
When we surveyed the parents in Greenlanes recently, there was an extremely high level of support among parents for not allowing children to own a smartphone while they are still in primary school. In fact, many parents said they are aiming to hold off on buying their child a smartphone for as long as possible. 94.7% of our parents supported implementing the voluntary smartphone pact not to get their child a smartphone while they are still in primary school. Please find the results attached for background information.
We are in the process of putting our pact in place and are now approaching local primary schools in Killester / Clontarf / Raheny to see if we can expand this project. The idea behind this movement, which stems from the Greystones initiative, is that if other parents in the local area of Clontarf / Killester / Raheny agree to hold off on getting their kids a smartphone, then it will alleviate peer pressure across sporting teams and friendship groups outside of the school community.
We appreciate it might be too late for many sixth class parents in your school and maybe even fifth class. This project is particularly aimed at parents of younger children with the aim of future-proofing these children from getting a smartphone too early. If you are a senior school only, it might be worth involving your junior school parents association to also survey parents of younger kids and get a broader viewpoint that does not just comprise parents of older children.
We would love to hear your feedback on this project and, should you decide to proceed with a survey, our PGA smartphone pledge committee is on hand to help you with next steps. If you already have a pledge in place, please let us know so we can start to work more collaboratively together.
Thank you for your time and we hope to hear from you.
Many Thanks,
Isabel Hayes and Lorna Cahill
Greenlanes PGA Chairs
pga@greenlanes.ie
Further Information and resources:
- https://smartphonefreechildhood.co.uk
- https://linktr.ee/smartphonefreechildhoodireland
- https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/education/2023/07/13/no-smartphone-policy-for-primary-students-could-be-extended-to-all-schools-says-minister-for-education/
- https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/education/2024/05/22/mobile-operators-pledge-not-to-sell-smartphones-to-under-13s-amid-concern-over-impact-of-social-media/
- https://www.thejournal.ie/campaign-calls-for-legislation-protect-children-online-6489853-Sep2024/