You won’t be the Grinch who stole Christmas if there is no smartphone in your child’s stocking this year.
This is the message from Smartphone Free Childhood South Africa (SFC-SA), as parents across the country face growing pressure to buy smartphones for children for Christmas.
According to SFC-SA spokesperson Claire Thompson, it is “very common” for children to receive smartphones as Christmas, festive or end-of-year gifts in South Africa, driven largely by the availability of cheap, entry-level devices.
The organisation is also supporting and publicising Australia’s social media ban for under-16s by running a national petition to gather South African data on how many parents would support similar legislation locally.
“A wide range of cheap, entry-level smartphones, devices that children, parents and grandparents see as highly valuable and ‘must-have’, becomes the easy go-to option for many parents. It feels like an affordable win: the child is happy and kept quiet and entertained, the parent or grandparent feels they’ve given something exciting, and everyone else seems to be doing the same,” said Thompson.
However, she warned that this short-term satisfaction comes with long-term consequences.
“At SFC-SA, we see the long-term risks this creates. Our organisation strongly advises parents to delay giving a smartphone for as long as possible, and definitely until high school. The reason is simple: a smartphone opens the door to the entire internet, and with that comes exposure to social media, adult content, online predators, addictive apps, and pressures that children simply aren’t developmentally ready or able to handle,” she said.
“Research consistently shows a clear link between early smartphone and social media use and rising rates of anxiety, depression, bullying, loneliness, poor self-esteem and disrupted sleep in children and teens. Childhood and parenting is already challenging enough; a smartphone intensifies those challenges long before children have the skills to manage them safely.”
To date, 4,506 South African parents have signed the Parent Pact, to delay smartphones and social media, across just more than 400 schools nationwide.
“The Parent Pact works by allowing families in the same grade of their child’s primary school to commit, together, to delaying smartphones and social media. Parents can immediately see how many other families are choosing the same path, because they receive an email sharing these details. This removes the pressure of feeling like ‘the only one saying no’, which is one of the biggest challenges parents face today,” said Thompson.
Parenting expert Nikki Bush said parents need to find their middle ground when it comes to technology, devices and children because “we live in a both, and not an either/or world”.
“Children should not be given smartphones under the age of 13. A smartphone gives them access to the world and the world access to them. Children under 13 need to be involved in as much physical activity and human interaction with their world, laying down solid foundations physically, mentally, cognitively and emotionally that will last a lifetime,” she said.
Bush said when parents give a child a cellphone they need to be prepared to talk about “tough stuff”.
“The tough stuff are nudes, revenge porn, sextortion, cyberbullying, sex trafficking, marketing and so much more because all these things are possible with a smartphone and social media.”
If parents do decide to give their child a cellphone, draw up a contact, Bush said.
“If you give your child a cellphone it is still your property, and they must sign a cellphone contract outlining their responsibilities and your responsibilities, as well as consequences for misuse. With great power comes great responsibility.”
TimesLIVE