„Die Macht liegt bei uns“: Die Smartphone-freie Elternbewegung nimmt in Irland Fahrt auf
https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025/12/08/the-power-is-with-us-smartphone-free-parenting-movement-takes-off-in-ireland/
Von RossaDeVereMcNally
„Die Macht liegt bei uns“: Die Smartphone-freie Elternbewegung nimmt in Irland Fahrt auf
https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025/12/08/the-power-is-with-us-smartphone-free-parenting-movement-takes-off-in-ireland/
Von RossaDeVereMcNally
7 Kommentare
Common sense stuff really, but good to see all the same. Hopefully the tide is moving ever so slightly that kids and smart devices is a disaster.
Got chatting to a parent at my 5yo’s weekend sports and their kid was already so addicted to phones, through too many „small breaks“ for the parents while out, they wouldn’t eat their breakfast without watching something. They were boggle eyed at how we limited screens to an hour or so and that was it.
*One practice at Meta is to target ads for weight loss and beauty treatments at adolescent girls who delete an Instagram story within a few minutes of posting it.*
*This pushes advertisements at users in a moment of self-consciousness and insecurity assuming the user might have deleted it because they didn’t like the way they looked.*
Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams, an ex-employee of Meta.
While I support the aim of groups like this parents need to be alert that some of them have been infiltrated but random conspiracy crazies. One of the “no smartphones” groups that was being promoted by our school had a prominent video about how Jews secretly control the world at the top of their Facebook page.
That was “Smartphone Free Childhood Ireland”.
This is the same mentality as those parents who didn’t let their kids watch tv in the past, dressed up in credible sounding language about safety. Painfully posh high anxiety types shutting in their kids from the modern world.
Teenagers socialize on their phones, organize their hangouts, play games together, sit on voice chat. that’s how it works nowadays. There’s no interacting with the modern world without a smartphone, no independence and no social life. If your 13 year old doesn’t have one, they’re missing out, 100%
The internet is a minefield, always has been, every person in the modern world will have to build resilience to the dangers.
The amount of 8-9 Yr old i see looking down at phones on their walk to school. It’s mental
„…to be the first to know the latest from our smartphone-free parenting group, follow us on social media, whatsapp group and subcribe to our youtube channel, dont forget to click the little bell for notifications, we are launching our podcast so you can hear our experts on the go“
Like everything, balance is the key.
We made the first heavily locked down smartphone a confirmation present for both the kids. With Whatsapp and no social media but we capitulated on Snapchat in the end.
Snapchat is a risky one but, again, you have to balance the harm of being a social outsider vs being 100% sure your kid is not being harmed. Snapchat is a big part of the „schoolyard politics“ whether we like it or not.
We will check and read through stuff on our kids phones, in their presence, just to make sure all is ok and we try an press home that they wont be in trouble if they share anything worrying with us.
They still might be sneaking or hiding stuff rom us. You can’t be sure. But letting go of a little control and letting them be young adults is part of parenting too.
I’ll tell you what being able to contact them and coordinate is brilliant though.