An online campaign committing parents to bar their children from owning a smartphone until they are at least 14 has garnered 100,000 signatures in the six months since its launch.
The Smartphone Free Childhood campaign launched a “parent pact” in September in which signatories committed to withhold handsets from their children until at least the end of year 9, and to keep them off social media until they are 16.
Daisy Greenwell, a cofounder of Smartphone Free Childhood, said parents had been put in an “impossible position” by the weak regulation of big tech companies, leaving them with a choice of getting their children a smartphone “which they know to be harmful” or leaving them isolated among their peers.
“The overwhelming response to the parent pact shows just how many families are coming together to say ‘no’ to the idea that children’s lives must be mediated by big tech’s addictive algorithms,” she said.
The biggest regional backing of the pact is in Surrey, where there have been 6,370 signatories, followed by Hertfordshire, where the city of St Albans is attempting to become Britain’s first to go smartphone-free for all under-14s.
More than 11,500 schools have signed – representing more than a third of the total of 32,000 in the UK.
Celebrity signatories include the singer Paloma Faith, the actor Benedict Cumberbatch and the broadcaster Emma Barnett.
According to research by the media regulator, Ofcom, 89% of 12-year-olds own a smartphone, a quarter of three- and four-year-olds do, and half of children under 13 are on social media.
Supporters of a handset ban argue that smartphones distract children from schoolwork, expose them to harmful online content and facilitate addictive behaviour.
Last week, after opposition from ministers, the Labour MP Josh MacAlister amended his private member’s bill that had proposed raising the age of digital consent from 13 to 16, meaning that social media companies would have required a parent’s permission to handle the data of a child under that age.
The bill now commits the government to researching the issue further rather than implementing immediate change.
Some experts have cautioned that a full ban is impractical or excessive. Sonia Livingstone, a professor of social psychology at the London School of Economics, said it was “too simplistic” as it reduced the pressure on social media companies to reform their services so that children can get the benefits without the harms.
She said any restrictions should be accompanied with alternative activities for children, especially opportunities to meet or play with friends, and it was important to recognise the practical uses of smartphones such as using maps, doing homework and contacting parents.
“I completely understand why there is a desire for an age limit on owning smartphones, but I don’t think a blanket ban is the way to go,” Livingstone said.
