When Rebecca Snow’s daughter heads into Grade 7 this year, she’ll have a device with her — but it’s not going to be a smartphone. Instead, she’ll be carrying a Pinwheel phone, which allows her to call, text and even listen to music. Notably absent from the device? Social media apps and a search engine.
“I don’t think anyone would say, ‘I don’t want to know where my 12-year-old is’; that’s completely normal now that we live in a world where everyone is so connected,” Snow says.
But she was concerned about how highly addictive and harmful having unrestricted access to tech with web browsers and social media would be if she gave her child a smartphone.
“I think the Netflix show Adolescence really woke a lot of people up to these things,” she says.
As of 2020, 20 per cent of Ontario teenagers reported spending five or more hours on social media a day, up from 11 per cent in 2013, according to the Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey. Some studies have linked over two hours a day on personal electronic devices and social media with high rates of suicidality and depressive symptoms among youth (though those who sustained high levels of face-to-face socializing were often protected against the negative consequences of time online).
Snow knew her daughter, who started asking about getting a smartphone around age 11, was feeling some social pressure from her classmates, some of whom received a phone as early as Grade 4. That’s where Unplugged Canada came in — a non-profit dedicated to delaying the use of smartphones in children until at least age 14.
“If your kid is saying, I would like a smartphone because all my friends have them — well, what if all her friends didn’t have them?”
Snow brought the Unplugged pledge to her daughter’s school with a couple other parents, and within a month, at least 11 other Grade 6 parents had signed on — including the parents of two of her daughter’s best friends.
“I’d actually say now about four of her friends are getting a Pinwheel phone, and then some are just getting a smart watch, so they can still contact their parents and friends without all the extras,” she says. “I think all these kids want to do is just not feel ostracized and not feel that they’re the ones who aren’t getting whatever everyone else is getting.”
For Ira Dubinsky, a father of a 10-year-old and six-year-old in Toronto, the conversation around smartphones hasn’t come up yet, but he and his partner have already decided to join the pledge.
“The more we learned about it, it became clear to us that this is something you want to hold off on for as long as possible, at least until our kids are an age where they can use this device responsibly,” he says. “And we realized this is something we should talk to other parents about. It would work best if we’re all in it together.”
Dubinsky notes that the conversations he has with other parents about this are always about children’s social and emotional well-being, rather than the initiative being about prohibiting something or a form of punishment.
“We have this vision of children living more through in person connections and being outside and learning and playing,” he says. “But that’s not just a nice idea — it’s what builds children’s mental and emotional resilience. If we wait a little longer with smartphones, it allows that type of childhood to happen.”
Both Snow and Dubinsky say they also regularly have conversations with their children about technology and online safety.
“We’re not anti-tech Luddites; my daughter has an iPad at home and goes on the Internet. So we talk about how everything you see on the Internet isn’t true and ask that she lets me know if she sees something inappropriate,” Snow says.
“My 10-year-old is really into technology and computers and the Internet, so we talk to him about the risks and the dangers,” Dubinsky explains. “I think talking about all that now will make the fact that he won’t have a phone until he’s older a little bit easier.”
