set@16

Smartphones & Children

Smartphones are not safe for children and are causing them significant harm. 'Sticking plaster' solutions, such as parental controls, are inadequate to the challenge. Instead, a total rethink is required, to categorise smartphones as 16+ products and make 'sticking to bricks' a societal and legal norm.

set@16 are calling for, amongst other measures…

  • ●16+ age labelling for smartphones
  • ●A public health campaign that explains the harms and dangers of smartphones and why setting at 16 is the right course of action. This would include a focus on non-internet non-camera basic phones as sensible and viable alternatives for children
  • ●A legal requirement that makes smartphones prohibited items from school premises. Whilst 'not seen or heard' policies are woefully inadequate, the storing of smartphones by schools is the wrong response. Pouching smartphones embeds smartphone ownership at 11, the exact opposite to what we want, and it is ineffective, as it does not protect children on their way to school or in after school clubs, for example. Instead, schools must ban from premises, as many now are.
  • ●A ban on advertising smartphones to children
  • ●A commitment by government and businesses to ensure that essential services, such as transport, can be accessed without smartphones

Take action

  • ●Sign our petitions, calling for 16+ age restrictions and to resist the drive to introduce smartphone storage solutions for schools.
  • ●Become a member of Smartphone Free Childhood and/or Delay Smartphones to find useful resources and to join with like minded parents, to delay, together.
  • ●Sign up to our newsletter, where we will highlight relevant news stories and developments
  • ●Write to MPs, local schools, businesses and individuals, asking them to do more to make set@16 a reality. Smartphones are just simply not appropriate for children and all of us, including key institutions, have a role in delaying children receiving them until at least 16 years old.