Four Foundational Norms To End The Phone-Based Childhood:
#3: Phone-Free Schools
Policy changes follow public opinion. If other parents in your kids’ schools share your concerns (and they do!), then gather them together to sign and send a petition to the school’s leadership asking for the school to go phone-free and to offer more free play and independence. When children are in school they should be paying attention to their teachers and to each other, not to their phones.
Recommended Action:
“Our mission is to provide youth the freedom to excel academically and develop socially without the distractions, pressures and harms of phones and social media during the school day.”
Next Step Recommendations:
Organize your school community: Parents are the biggest force our children’s lives. And when parents and education align, our kids will thrive. Use these guidebooks and templates to reach out to your school and work with them to remove distractions in the classroom.
Ideas for Changing Smartphone Policy in Schools, SmartphoneFreeChildhood
How to Talk to Your School District About Removing Smartphones, Protect Young Eyes. Thorough guide to conversations, complete with common pushbacks.
Fairplay’s Screens in Schools Action Kit - Templates for letters to school administrators and letters to the editor to be sent to websites and newspapers, and handouts you can use for community and PTA meetings
Become an Activist: Lend your hand and voice to help legislators pass laws to protest childhood from the grips of Technology overreach. These organizations are already in the arena and would love your help.
Read:
The Case for Phone-Free Schools, Jonathan Haidt. The research is clear: Smartphones undermine attention, learning, relationships, and belonging.
It Sure Looks Like Phones Are Making Students Dumber, Derek Thompson. Thompson covers a 2023 PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) report that details phone impact on student achievement.
Letter to US Secretary of Education, Overview of argument to ban phones from schools, co-signed by dozens of advocacy groups and child development specialists.
Four Foundational Norms to Reclaim Childhood
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1. Delay Smartphones Until At Least High School
Link up with the parents of your child’s friends to commit together to waiting until high school (at least) before giving a smartphone.
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2. Delay Social Media Until At Least 16
Social media platforms expose children to a wide variety of harms, there is no way to make it appropriate for children. Link up with the parents of your child’s friends to commit together to not allowing your children to open social media accounts until at least 16.
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3. Phone Free Schools
Gather local parents together to sign and send a petition to your school’s leadership asking for the school to go phone-free and to offer more free play and independence
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4. More Independence, Free Play and Responsibility in the Real World
Kids develop social skills and overcome anxiety naturally through independence and unsupervised play. This means letting them do more activities and errands on their own, unsupervised, in the real world.
Collective action gives parents a Technology off ramp they don’t have as an individual.
That’s what the #FourNormsChallenge does. When we band together, we flip the cultural norms away from Technology first, and toward Childhood first.
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We’re trapped in a system that everyone hates. Parents are struggling, teachers hate it, and our kids are suffering. Meanwhile Tech Companies are pulling in the most profits in the history of the market on the backs of our attention and engagement. The way out is to raise our voices together, through collective action. That’s what the #FourNormsChallenge does.
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Parents deserve a voice into our cultural norms.. Our mission is 100,000 parents committing to the spirit of the Four Foundational Norms to reclaim childhood in the real world.
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There are already amazing organizations tackling every segment of the Four Foundational Norms for Solving Collective Action Problems introduced by Jonathan Haidt in his groundbreaking book The Anxious Generation. We provide a path forward, making it easy to take those actions.
FAQs
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By far the biggest strain on modern parenthood is Tech related. It’s not the only challenge, but it exacerbates most of the others. Further, Tech platforms are relentless in their pursuit of our attention. This creates a scenario where it’s very difficult for individual parents to thrive. It’s important in this moment to take action together, to reclaim our connection with our children in a digital world.
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Parents of all school-aged children who have concerns about how Technology and Social Media are impacting their family.
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Of course. Visit our How It Works section to find links to learn more about each organization and solution.
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Start here, with the 1st norm, and walk through each one to see more resources and actions to take.
We will be adding more ideas and actions soon. For now, we recommend checking out all of the great organztions listed over on The Anxious Generation website.