Mother picked up her teenage daughter from basketball exercises
Cordial | E+ | Getty Images
When – and if – to give your child a smartphone has become a hot topic in recent months.
Parents cite evidence that social media can increase risk Questions of mental health As a reason to prevent their children to use smartphones, but they face numerous challenges – no in -peer pressure – that make it difficult to implement rules at home.
Jonathan Haidt, a NYU professor and author of “Anxiety Generation”, is one of the brain behind what has become known as a childhood movement without smartphones. She has advice for parents who are struggling with this, saying that solving the problem of using smartphones in children requires parents to work together.
“The reason why this is such a global problem and the reason why many parents feel so powerless is that when we all act alone and try to say,” No, you don’t get a smartphone, “our child says, ‘But I am the only one who does not have one.
“So, when we face it as individuals, we are trapped, and it becomes worse and worse, and because we are stuck in the problem of collective action, the only way out is through collective action.”
His comments come as Movement without any child It gets attraction, and organizations appear around the world. They include free childhood with headquarters in the UK, based in Austin to 8thIncluded in Canada, there is no ES Momento in Mexico and the head of the head in Australia.
Haidt said there is what he calls “four simple norms” that can help parents delay the giving of smartphones to their children and teenagers.
“Two of them need a government, two no,” Haidt explained. “Four simple norms and if most of us work, we solve the problem.”
1. No smartphones before 14
First not giving children smartphones 14 years ago. “Let them have a swivel phone, but remember, the smartphone is not really a phone. They could make phone calls, but it’s a multipurpose device that can get the world to your children,” Haidt said.
Children who received their first smartphone at an older age report on minor mental health damage, a global study of 27,969 18-24-year-old by US non-profit organizations of the United States Sapien laboratories Found in 2023.
It showed that 74% of respondents who received their first phone at the age of six had said that they were in trouble or struggled, but that it was reduced to 52% for those who received their first smartphone at the age of 15.
For men, these feelings have decreased with 42% for those who got their first smartphone at the age of six, to 36% for those who received their first smartphone at the age of 18.
2. No social media before 16
Others are that parents wait until 16 years before they allow their children to have accounts on social media.
“Social media are a little inappropriate for minors … So there are no social media up to 16,” Haidt said at the event, pointing to a growing body of research showing how Social media It affects the confidence of young people.
Companies on social networks are trying to deal with some concerns that parents and legislators have started. For example, Meta Instagram presented Teens accounts For children 16 and less, which are private, have limited settings that parents can only remove and notifications silenced at a certain time.
Other efforts include starting Google YouTube children In 2015, as a separate application with content and controls adapted to children.
Haidt said that government and social media can continue to take things by implementing age checks. Australia It is one of the few countries that has performed a ban on social media for under the age of 16.
3. Schools without a phone
Haidt’s third norm has schools without a phone that should be reinforced by a government, he said. “What we see is … Teachers everyone hate phones, children can’t learn when they are in Tictok and video games and porn during classes.”
Most schools in England Spend a ban or restriction on phone use in schools, but in the last year there has been a converting guidelines into the law. In the meantime, Zhengzhou has become First city in China bring legislation to limit phone use by students in primary and secondary schools.
The reasons for bans telephone in schools include increasing attention in the class and nurturing more personal socialization.
4. More free games
The fourth proposed rule is a replacement of “digital” childhood with real activities. He said we needed “far more free games and independence in the real world” and “We need to bring our children back an exciting childhood.”
When it comes to collective action, Zach Rausch, a research scientist in NYU -II leading researcher for an “anxiety generation,” said CNBC earlier that this was crucial for that Organize with your parents from children in your children’s class.
“Talk to their parents, and if you all decide to delay smartphones together to high school, then it will be much easier because then you can say” Well, Johnny also doesn’t get your smartphone up to 14, “he said.
Rausch also called for a childhood restored to the games in which children had autonomy to play outdoors, independent and risk, which is “really crucial for human development.”
