In UK's Hitchin, a New Initiative to Delay Kids' Smartphone Use

TapTechNews September 26th news, yesterday (September 25th), BBC News in the UK released a blog post reporting that a new initiative is being implemented in Hitchin, England, UK, and most parents have signed a pledge vowing not to equip their children with smartphones until the end of grade 9 (when the child is 14 years old).

TapTechNews cites sources as reporting that parent Daisy Greenwell created a SmartphoneFreeChildhood chat group on WhatsApp, hoping to postpone the time when children use smartphones.

Another parent in the group, Richard Bowdler, advised Tony Plunkett, the principal of William Ransom Primary School, and Plunkett then supported the parents' decision and joined with the 25 primary schools in the town to require parents not to give students smartphones to wear.

One of the important challenges is that if their friends are chatting on apps and arranging parties on social media, then their children may be isolated, and this initiative is to eliminate this problem.

Plunkett said: We don't want children to be alienated, so inevitably you have to give them access to mobile phones. Hopefully what we are doing is trying to build such a community where there are more children without mobile phones than those with mobile phones.