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Ireland鈥檚 phone-free town

A year ago, headteachers of all the primary schools in Greystones got together. Concerned by pupils' anxiety levels, they asked parents to delay buying their children smartphones.

Greystones made global headlines a year ago when, concerned by rising anxiety levels among their pupils, the headteachers from all the primary schools in the town invited parents to sign a voluntary pact or code; not to buy their child a smartphone before they moved up to secondary school. In Ireland that鈥檚 usually at age 12. Beth McLeod talks to teachers, pupils and parents about their reaction to the initiative. Has there been any backlash? At one of the town鈥檚 secondary schools she meets an assistant headteacher who is passionately demanding a culture change around phone use for older students too, warning parents that although they think they are giving their children access to the internet, they are really giving the internet access to their children. She speaks to teenagers about their views on what is the right age to be on social media and asks the Irish Health Minister what the government is doing to hold tech companies to account.

Sources include CyberSafeKids: Trends and Usage Report 2022-2023

Reporter and Producer: Beth McLeod
Sound Engineer: Andy Fell
Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Executive Editor: Penny Murphy

(Image: Rachel Harper, Headteacher at St Patrick鈥檚 National School, Greystones. Credit: Beth McLeod/91热爆)

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27 minutes

Last on

Sun 16 Jun 2024 15:06GMT

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