I bought my first mobile phone in 1996. It was a Philips Fizz with an extendable aerial, and the only reason I bought it was for added security on long car journeys in South Africa. It was first and foremost a phone, with the ability to send a few text messages, but that was it.
28 years later, the advances in this technology have been seismic, and my Philips looks unrecognisable compared to the functionality and sleekness of design which is available today. Whilst my current mobile phone has all the potential to run a small country, I still pretty much use it just for keeping in touch, for navigating when I am travelling, and for accessing information on the go. That’s it. I thankfully bypassed all the attraction of social media.
You Tube launched in 2005, Twitter in 2006, the iPhone was released in all major markets by 2009, and with the arrival of the Alpha Generation in 2010, along came Instagram in the same year, followed by Snap Chat in 2011, and Tik Tok in 2017. Our Alpha Generation, who are our 14-year-olds and younger, haven’t had a chance to evade social media … they have never known life without it! They have grown up face-timing grandparents, watching You Tube and playing virtual games. The deftness of their fingers sliding over the screen, as they swiftly move between various apps and platforms indicates a generation who are extremely comfortable, confident and in tune with technology.
However, harnessing the positive potential of technology alongside the negative influence of social media is a tightrope which has been increasingly tricky for parents and educators to navigate. Thankfully, we are reaping the benefits of extensive research which is now finally coming to the fore about the negative effects of social media, for girls and boys.
Ofcom has reported that 24% of 5- to 7-year-olds have a mobile phone, and equally worrying, a third use social media platforms unsupervised. For young children who are biologically programmed to play to develop socially and emotionally, a smartphone becomes an ‘experience blocker’ (Jonathan Haidt), and the natural development of the pre-frontal cortex is adversely affected. The subtext for parents of young children is … ‘Don’t do it!’ … hold off buying a mobile phone for your child for as long as possible.
There is a difference between viewing social media on a browser and committing to signing up to a personal account. Apart from bypassing social media age restrictions, signing up to an account at a young age opens the door for app algorithms to harvest content which will surreptitiously entice and draw your child in, with a level of engagement which they have not developed the self-regulation or discipline to manage. Your child is essentially given a Golden Ticket to the Chocolate Factory.
Thankfully, there is so much practical advice and guidance now for parents as well as professionals in supporting children to navigate this minefield.
- Get advice on robust parent controls and filters and set them up on your child’s device. Talk to other parents, or indeed your child’s school if you need guidance or advice on this.
- Read widely and listen to podcasts to keep informed. ‘The Anxious Generation’ by Jonathan Haidt makes for a powerful argument against owning a mobile phone or accessing social media.
- Don’t allow children to take any device into their bedroom; these should be used in common family areas and remain there when children go to bed.
- Set routines and times for screen time at home; using technology in moderation is not harmful.
- Collaborate with other parents and share advice. If parents are united as a collective, the familiar lament of ‘but everyone else is doing it’ will be a lot easier to counteract.
Parenting and educating children in a world where social media is designed specifically to entice and engage, is not easy, but if we keep alert and informed, and share our collective knowledge, we will be better able to support our children’s young minds in developing the skills needed to navigate the hazards of a social media world, when the time is right and appropriate for them to do so.
Head of Lower School