{"id":60652,"date":"2026-04-29T13:24:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T13:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/?p=60652"},"modified":"2026-04-29T13:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T13:24:11","slug":"sheffield-parents-and-schools-unite-behind-smartphone-ban-as-national-petition-gains-momentum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/29\/sheffield-parents-and-schools-unite-behind-smartphone-ban-as-national-petition-gains-momentum\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheffield parents and schools unite behind smartphone ban as national petition gains momentum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Campaign group, Smartphone Free Childhood, has launched a petition urging the UK government to raise the minimum age for social media and limit children’s access to smartphones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The petition, ‘Tell Starmer: Protect our kids from harmful social media’, has had support from thousands of families and parents, gaining 50,000 signatures in under 24 hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The campaign involves a “Parent Pact” approach where parents are asked to sign a voluntary pledge to delay giving smartphones until around the age of 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across South Yorkshire, a total of 222 schools have been covered under the pact and 2,795 children signed into the movement, with a strong uptake of schools in Sheffield such as Hallam Primary School and Ecclesall Primary School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was introduced in response to growing concerns about the harmful effects of social media and smartphones, acknowledging that childhood is increasingly shaped by algorithms rather than real-world experiences, with the average child getting a smartphone at the age of nine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laura Spradling, a South Yorkshire Regional leader said: “When I think about the potential of children having a bully in their pocket, it’s very heart breaking to me because they’ll no longer have a safe space.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sheffield advocates of the campaign, Ruth Fitzell and Constantin Court have also sent a proposal to the Sheffield City Council pushing their agenda prompting more support for parents on how to introduce smartphones and social media and encourage schools to adopt smartphone free policies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a letter of response, Dawn Dale, Chair for the Education, Children & Families policy Committee, said: “We need an approach that is not anti-technology but about supporting healthy childhoods and giving families clearer, more consistent backing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A growing wave of support for limiting smartphone use among young children is exemplified by Ecclesfield Primary School’s recent ‘S35 Unplugged’ initiative, where children voluntarily participated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms Spradling added: “We want to see children go back to a play-based childhood rather than a phone-based childhood, I want this to be an option for parents.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the introduction of a government imposed legal ban on mobile phone in schools, the campaign group consider this to be a step in the right direction and call for clearer guidance to support its implementation, with some schools already adopting solutions such as Yondr pouches. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Campaign group, Smartphone Free Childhood, has launched a petition urging the UK government to raise the minimum age for social media and limit children’s access to smartphones. The petition, ‘Tell Starmer: Protect our kids from harmful social media’, has had support from thousands of families and parents, gaining 50,000 signatures in under 24 hours. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":354,"featured_media":60703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,132,165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-stories","category-top-story-4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60652"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60726,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60652\/revisions\/60726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}