2 weeks Ago By Eva Kolimar
Two Loftus mothers are taking the reins of their children's screen time use by getting them offline and outdoors. or signup to continue reading and Sasha Faint have organised a community gathering called ' ', to encourage families to unite during the school holidays on October 4 and 11 for a screen-free neighbourhood play adventure. It's about getting kids outside - riding bikes, mingling with neighbours and simply interacting - unplugged in person, and not through a digital device.
The mums are part of the Heads Up Alliance, which advocates for parents to delay giving smartphones to their children until they are in high school. Their initiative follows the Federal Government's recent announcement to introduce laws that enforce a minimum age for access to social media and other digital platforms. It's a welcome plan the mums say, but one that should start "from the home".
Mrs Faughey has children in Kindergarten, Year 3 and Year 6. "With my eldest going into high school, we decided not to get her smartphone," she said. "A lot of Year 6 mums I know are supportive of that.
Our Year 3 child is one of a few in the class who doesn't have an iPad, and my Kindergartener has never had an iPad," she said. "It is detrimental what social media does to our kids. You hear from friends about their kids having anxiety and they're seeing psychologists.
My daughter will have sleepovers and her friends try to get on their TikTok. "But the conversation in our house is 'this is why we don't..
.' I said to my son, how about we give you the money that a device costs, put the cash into your account and you can spend it on a holiday. He likes the idea.
He'll be out on the street riding his bike trying to find someone to play with, and there's no one." She said parents held the power. "Schools and the big dogs like Meta only do so much," she said.
"Parents can be good role models in promoting a new way of bringing back the old childhood. It's a new thing for us - we only know what it's like bringing our kids up with technology. This movement is happening but it's about showing parents that they can have the courage to say 'we've gone too far'.
" Heads Up Alliance Founder Dany Elachi says the mums advocating for change in their school community is an example of parents working to end phone-based childhood and revive the play-based one for all Australian children. "I think they're onto something and the Heads Up Alliance wholeheartedly supports their initiative because it's the other side of the coin to our work which is aimed at ending the phone-based childhood," Mr Elachi said. He hopes there is more substance to the government's announcement.
"Parents are simply not in a fair fight against some of the planet's richest and most powerful corporations, and we need the help of government to rescue our children from a mass crisis of addiction," he said. "Unless and until safer platforms for our children are developed, the Heads Up Alliance is calling for no smartphones before high school and no social media before 16..
.this is the mission of the Heads Up Alliance, which has been working in this space since it started at Kingsgrove in 2020. We are also hopeful the government will step in and really move us forward.
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that's not to say parents are completely helpless and cannot play a role." The alliance is also calling for a blanket ban on mobile phones in all schools. "Every public school in Australia now is phone-free, due in part to the efforts of the Heads Up Alliance in the past few years," Mr Elachi said.
"We also got Sydney Catholic Schools over the line last year. We are still working with other Catholic and independent schools, and we have a going at the moment." NSW Premier Chris Minns said since the ban on mobile phones in schools, teachers had reported a drop in bullying and violent incidents, an increase in attendance from repeated truants, and a dramatic increase in learning time.
"Improving educational outcomes for students across NSW is a key priority for our government, and this is just one of the things we've done to help achieve this," Mr Minns said. "We're partnering with the Peter Malinauskas Government to host a first of its kind focused on exploring and addressing the impacts of social media on young people." Mr Elachi has been invited to be a guest speaker at a first-of-its-kind two-day social media summit on October 10, in partnership between the NSW and SA governments.
The summit will bring together experts, policymakers, academics, young people, and members of the community to discuss the positive and negative impacts of social media on people's lives, particularly children and young people, and how government can best support digital well-being. It aims to help inform the design and delivery of a range of policies, programs and resources to address the challenges posed by social media. St George and Sutherland Shire Leader reporter covering education, health and general community news.
Email: [email protected] St George and Sutherland Shire Leader reporter covering education, health and general community news.
Email: [email protected].
