Online smartphone workshops to be hosted by The Conversation Stamford as part of its Cyberwise campaign

Smartphone workshops have revealed how much children want to use social media despite their awareness of the dangers.

Educators from The Conversation Stamford have been working with primary school children to explore their views on smartphones as part of their Cyberwise campaign.

They are asking parents to sign a pledge and commit to three things - no smartphones for primary aged children, no social media for under 13s and the use of parental controls until a child turns 16.

The aim is to protect children from viewing harmful content and avoid other pitfalls of excessive phone use such as reduced attention span and a negative impact on sleep.

The issues are being discussed with eight to 11-year-olds across all Stamford primary schools and will be followed up with parent webinars and workshops.

Director of The Conversation Stamford, Gemma Holbird, said: “We’re learning a lot. Children know what’s wrong with these apps but they still want them. A lot of them are very keen on TikTok and Snapchat, which research shows can be the most harmful.

“We had already done pupil surveys so we knew a lot of children use these apps, but it was a pleasant surprise to discover their level of awareness of the dangers.”

The campaign seeks to minimise the dangers by showing families that there are alternatives to smartphones,. “Dumb phones” have basic functions such as the ability to make phone calls but cannot be used for downloading apps.

Gemma said: “There is a balance to be had. We’ve found that sometimes the reasons children want to use a particular app isn’t necessarily what they end up using it for.

“For example they might want Snapchat to add filters to their photos, but then they end up using it for other reasons.”

Gemma and her colleagues hope their Cyberwise campaign will educate parents on the potential pitfalls of smartphones and ways to avoid them.

For the next stage of the campaign they are hosting two parent webinars to talk about their research and their parent pledge. These will be followed by face-face-face workshops in March.

The online webinars will take place on Zoom on Tuesday, February 4 and Wednesday, February 12 at 7.30pm.

To join the first session visit https://buff.ly/3Wgcrun and use the meeting identification number 685 790 7467

The link for the second session is https://buff.ly/4gSSPFh with the same identification number.

Links are also available from The Conversation Stamford’s Facebook page.

Do you support the campaign? Let us know in the comments below.