Parents from 150 schools sign phone ban pledge

Parents from up to 150 schools in Warwickshire have signed a pledge to bar their children from owning a smartphone until the end of Year 9.

The Smartphone Free Childhood (SFC) campaign is a grassroots movement that calls for parents to delay their children's access to devices to help protect them from encountering harm on social media and the internet.

So far, the parents of 1,014 children from 147 schools in Warwickshire have signed the agreement and a series of awareness events will be hosted across the county.

It follows the rising popularity of the Netflix drama Adolescence, which highlights the dangers that children can face on social media.

Research gathered by SFC indicates 97% of 12-year-olds now own a smartphone.

Charlotte Ashton, a mother-of-two and the Warwickshire lead campaigner, said: "We're stuck between a rock and a hard place because on one hand, we know how harmful smartphones are for children but on the other hand, if you don't give your child one, you risk socially isolating them and you don't want your child to be the odd one out."

Sam Ibbs, a paediatrician and mother, added: "Time on smartphones and screens are linked to a serious decline in mental health, anxiety, depression, poor language skills, the list goes on and on."

A private member's bill that aims to tackle smartphones in schools and addictive algorithms aimed at young teenagers had its second reading in Parliament earlier this month.

The proposed legislation calls for the government to say within a year whether it will raise the digital age of consent from 13 to 16 - meaning companies could not collect children's data without parental permission until that age.

For parents like Daisy, from Stratford, who has also signed the pledge, it is a big concern.

She told BBC CWR: "Stop arming our children with smartphones. Schools I'm sure can still set homework online, but perhaps they can use their PC or laptop and just take that communication element out of their hands."

Nearly three quarters of teenagers between 13 and 17 have encountered one or more potential harms online, Ofcom found.

SFC wants tech companies to create a mobile phone that only has basic features like texting and making calls. Parents could then upgrade with more functions as their child gets older.

Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.