The debate on the impact of new technologies among the little ones has led to the Irish town of Greystones, south of Dublin, to join forces to prohibit in the entire municipality, not only in schools, access to mobile phones for children under 12 years of age.
This innovative idea, which is beginning to spread rapidly throughout the country, it aims to reduce the levels of anxiety detected by professionals in schoolchildren and alleviate, at the same time, the pressure that parents feel when deciding when to give them their first mobile.
Initiative
The initiative is inspired by that proverb that says that “It takes a town to educate a child”explains its promoter, Rachel Harper, director of the San Patricio de Greystones primary school to EFE.
The educator, together with the other seven directors of the rest of the schools in this coastal town of about 30,000 inhabitants, and in neighboring Delgany, has managed to get most of the parents to take advantage of this voluntary program, up to create momentum aimed at making it “the new normal”.
“The idea is that it’s the new normal for kids in Greystones and Delgany, that if a kid from St. Patrick’s goes to the tennis club or rugby club, or to camp for the weekend, or to the beach, feel that everyone is equal to others their age, that no one has a motive, because as some children tell me, ‘Miss Harper, this is fair, we are all equal, there is no exclusion’”says the director.
Less pressure for parents and children
Peer pressure exists, Harper laments, between them and towards parents, and “every time at a much younger age, at nine, ten years old, they already ask for a mobile phone”.
“Parents don’t want their children to feel left out or to be the odd one out, the one who is missing out. I think they see this as fair. They are even worried about raising these concerns with us for fear of being seen as too protective or as those who judge those who have given their children a mobile ”, she explains.
Therefore, continue “they are delighted” that it is the school that leads the campaign “Takes a village…”, after confirming at the beginning of the year through questionnaires that minors present higher levels of anxiety not only by the impact of the pandemic but also by new technologies.
“Regarding mobiles, we realized that if a child already has anxiety and is worried, they can search for information with a single click. Here we have 17 children from the Ukraine who are doing very well, but this can bring the issue of war into the classroom and they can find very violent material,” recalls Harper.
Likewise, they have detected that with “nine, ten and even eight years old”kids are now “much more concerned with their body image” and “how they think they should look”, suggesting that “they are growing up faster and starting to deal with adolescent issues much earlier”.
Eight-year-old Rachel Capatina thinks “a good idea” that he won’t have a smartphone for at least four years, while his sister Jane, ten, will also have to wait for some time.