KarunaNews Story

An extraordinary grassroots campaign called Smartphone Free Childhood that has helped inspire everything from changes in school policies to the development of a new ‘childhood-friendly’ phone in a little over a year started with a casual conversation between two mothers of eight year old girls during a playdate. Daisy Greenwell and Clare Fernyhough set up a WhatsApp group, and it soon inspired new groups. “Within a couple of weeks, every county in Britain had them,” says Greenwell. To make SFC reality, husband and SFC co-founder Joe Ryrie weaned himself off his branding agency and Greenwell left Positive News. Now SFC has a team of six, and thousands of supporters and volunteers. At its heart is the Parent Pact, signed by 140,000 families “on every continent apart from Antarctica”, to commit to the ‘no smartphone until 14 / no social media until 16’ stance, and encourage their kids’ schools to do the same. SFC increasingly works with schools like Alderbrook secondary school in Solihull, West Midlands, which has introduced a voluntary hand-in scheme. With headteacher Tom Beveridge as the driving force, 68 of the 80 schools in the area have committed to similar steps. The team has been talking to smartphone maker HMD, owner of the Nokia brand, which is developing a child-friendly device that will allow access to essential information, without opening the gates to social media.