I spoke to an influential member of the smartphone free childhood movement recently. It’s not just phones that are the problem: her child’s school are forcing a laptop on her nine-year-old child. And there seems little she can do about it.
Laptops or tablets have been embedded in schools for ages now. (No, I don’t mean ICT classes. I mean everything.) According to one 2022 study, almost every secondary school student uses a laptop for at least part of the day.
This is something I hear a lot. Parents being told – in some cases even in primary school – that they must buy a laptop for their children to work on. If you fancy dipping your toe in the water to feel just how hot it is, here’s a recent Mumsnet thread on the subject. When I asked around, pretty much every parent told me something similar. There is no alternative.
There are lots of reasons why this is pretty strange.
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