The parents saying no to smartphones for their kids

In The News · Feb 18, 2025 · 22m

Groups of Irish parents dotted around the country have unwittingly started a large-scale social experiment – they’re joining together and aiming, as a group, to delay giving their preteen a smartphone. These parents of soon-to-be first year students in secondary schools in Dublin, Cork and Galway hope they can hold out in the face of their children’s smartphone requests, social media’s addictive algorithms and what many see as a failure by successive governments to regulate the dangers of the internet. Mary Lovegrove is one such parent who has spoken to Irish Times education correspondent…