Campaigning for a Smartphone Free Childhood
In November last year, I started promoting the Dutch book Smartphonevrij Opgroeien in the village where I live and where my children go to school. I never thought I'd take action to challenge a social norm or to influence policy. Yet here I am: texting parents, emailing and visiting school principals, participation councils, and school boards. But why am I doing this?
That question is becoming more and more important because my 10-year-old daughter sometimes sees me as the worst dad in the world. Why can’t she have a smartphone like her classmates? Answering that question seems impossible. No matter the arguments, she doesn’t want to hear me defending a ‘no’. And the thing is: I get it. I truly get her point. She doesn’t want to be the one without. She wants to belong. That’s the one argument that outweighs all others.
And that’s exactly why I’m doing this. That’s why I’m campaigning for change, advocating for a shift in social norms. In a situation where everybody is watching each other and where it’s hard to act first, change is easiest when it comes from the top. And while there is all kinds of legislation already in the making, I feel I can’t wait for those new laws to one day become effective for my kids.
Change happens from the bottom up as well. It’s about children looking at friends, parents looking at other parents, schools observing neighboring schools. It’s about bringing people together, informing them well and changing direction together. Knowing that just around 25% of a group can change the direction of the entire group is a powerful motivator.