What can we do?

Parents have been put in an impossible position.

Parents have been put in an impossible position. Either we allow our children access to devices and social media, which are proven to harm healthy development, or we risk alienating them from their peers.

Kids’ underdeveloped brains and sophisticated algorithms create an unfair fight, making it unreasonable to expect them to use or learn to use these devices responsibly. Big Tech is not going to step up, and regulation can’t keep up with technology. We believe something needs to change and it starts with all of us.

We started SFC for parents to take collective action, and to kickstart the change society needs.

When we first started using smart devices, we had little understanding of the impact they have on children and teenagers. Now we do.

For Parents

Start the conversation with other parents using these tips.
Sign the Parent Pact to delay smartphones until high school.
Join or add your school community on WhatsApp.
Write to your primary or high school about sharing the pact, hosting a talk or sending a survey.
Sign the petition for smartphone-free schools in South Africa.

For Schools

Follow these examples to talk to your parent body.
Promote the Parent Pact within your school community.
Review and enforce policies on phones and social media.
Advocate for simple, “start phones” before smartphones.
Follow this step-by-step plan to become a phone-free school.

The Four Norms

Jonathan Haidt has called for a collective swing towards four new norms, that he believes would provide a foundation upon which a healthier kind of childhood could be forged for the digital age:

1

Delay smartphones until high school
2

Delay social media until 16
3

Phone-free schools
4

More independence, free play and responsibility in the real world.

In his international bestseller, The Anxious Generation, US social psychologist Jonathan Haidt concludes that we have overprotected children in the real world and under protected them online. He advocates for a change in digital norms similar to those that have evolved around seatbelts, sunscreen, and smoking. His four norms for healthy childhood development are the cornerstone of the SFC movement.