European Parent Groups Aim to Ban Smartphones for Teens

01If parents say no when a child asks for a smartphone, the response they are likely to hear is, everyone has one.

02Why can't I?

03But what would happen if the child's friends did not have a mobile phone either?

04That is the way that some parents in Europe are thinking.

05They are concerned by evidence that smartphone use among young children threatens their safety and mental health.

06They believe that the more parents join their movement, the more powerful their ideas become.

07Parents in Spain, Britain, and Ireland are using social media groups on services like WhatsApp and Telegram to talk about their plans.

08They want to keep smartphones out of schools.

09But for their plan to work, other parents have to refuse to buy children the devices before or even into their teenage years.

10Elizabeth Garcia-Permonier got involved after she talked with another parent in a Barcelona park.

11Last year, she started a social media group to share information on the dangers of the Internet with families at her children's school.

12The group, called Adolescents Free of Mobile Phones, quickly grew and now includes over 10,000 members.

13The most involved parents are asking other parents to agree not to get their children smartphones until they are 16.

14When I started this, I just hoped I would find four other families who thought like me.

15But it took off and kept growing.

16Growing and growing, Garcia-Permonier said.

17My goal was to try to join forces with other parents so we could push back the point when smartphones arrive.

18I said, I am going to try so that my kids are not the only ones who don't have one.

19Police and public health experts have also been voicing concerns about the kind of materials that children can see on their mobile devices.

20Spain's government took note of the problem and banned smartphones from elementary schools in January.

21Now, they can only be turned on in secondary school, which starts at age 12, if a teacher deems it necessary for an educational activity.

22In Britain last year, a 16-year-old girl named Brianna Gay was killed by two teenagers.

23Her mother demanded that social media on smartphones be limited for children under 16.

24Mother Daisy Greenwell, who lives in the area of Suffolk, England, and a friend, Claire Reynolds, set up a social media group called Parents United for a Smartphone-Free Childhood.

25It grew quickly, and an organizer said it now has groups in every British county.

26In Greystones, Ireland, eight primary school leaders, or principals, wrote to parents asking them not to buy their students' smartphones.

27Then the parents themselves voluntarily signed written agreements promising not to let their young children have the devices.

2838-year-old Christina Capatina is a Greystones parent of two young daughters.

29She signed the agreement and said there were almost no smartphones in schools this school year.

30Studies from Spain, Britain, and Ireland show that by the time children are 12, most have smartphones.

31In Spain, 25% of children have a cell phone by age 10 and almost 50% by age 11.

32At 12, this share rises to 75%.

33British media regulator Ofcom said 55% of children in Britain owned a smartphone between ages 8 and 11, with the figure rising to 97% by age 12.

34Over recent years, organizations, governments, and parents have been reporting that smartphone use by children is linked to bullying, mental health problems, and loss of the focus necessary for learning.

35China moved last year to limit children's use of smartphones.

36France has a ban on smartphones in schools for children aged 6 to 15.

37The possible dangers have produced school bans on smartphones and online safety laws, but those measures do not deal with what children do outside of school with mobile phones.

38Parents and schools that have pushed for changes in their communities saw that it became possible the moment they understood that they were not alone.

39Rachel Harper is principal of St.

40Patrick's National School in Greystones.

41Harper wants parents to work with their local school to organize phone bans.

42She said, there's a bit more strength that way, in that all the parents in the area are talking about it.

43I'm Jill Robbins.

44And I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.

45and I'm going to go to the