Two mums start viral Smartphone Free Childhood campaign: 'Parents are in an impossible situation'
This HELLO! Magazine feature profiles Daisy Greenwell and Clare Fernyhough shortly after they launched Smartphone Free Childhood, reporting that the campaign had already drawn more than 17,000 Instagram followers and roughly 50 UK WhatsApp groups within three weeks. The piece describes both founders as mothers of primary-school-age daughters who wanted support delaying smartphones until age 14 and social media until 16, and quotes Greenwell characterizing the pressure on parents as leaving them in "an impossible situation" between giving a child a phone or risking social isolation. It reports the campaign had already drawn celebrity supporters and some backing from MPs and policy specialists, and notes the founders point to associations between smartphone access and young people's anxiety, depression, and exposure to harmful content as reasons for their recommended delay, without describing this as a single, proven cause.
The piece reports the campaign's Instagram following passed 17,000 within its first three weeks.
It reports roughly 50 WhatsApp groups had formed across the UK in the same three-week window.
Hamilton, Sophie. "Two mums start viral Smartphone Free Childhood campaign: 'Parents are in an impossible situation.'" HELLO! Magazine, 6 Mar. 2024. https://www.hellomagazine.com/healthandbeauty/mother-and-baby/514887/two-mums-start-smartphone-free-childhood-movement/