American associations are offering parents to make a pact between them to counter the incessant demands of their children for the purchase of a smartphone.
This is the club argument of kids. "But all the kids in my class have one …" ; "But I'm the only one in the class who does not have the right to …" It does not matter if this is not necessarily true, it often manages to make parents wobble – none of them of course want his offspring to be marginalized – and to convince them to equip their children with smartphones, tablets, consoles …
In the United States, an American association had the idea to propose to the parents to engage collectively not to give a smartphone before the class of 4e. Families who sign the promise are responsible for contacting others in their child's class. The pact is activated when they are at least ten, of the same grade level and the same school. "Parents can tell their children: "look, we are not the only ones"… " explains Adrienne Principe, mother of four children. She launched a similar initiative – Concord Unit – in Massachusetts. In CM2, her daughter was the only child without a smartphone.
The bad practices of children in terms of screens, it's like lice and bad words, it only happens by the children of others.
In Tom Sternal's son's class, north of New York, half of the children already had their smartphone, 6ewhen a teacher mentioned this idea of pact. "It has soothed tensions between families"recalls the father. Until then, when it came to go to play at home, some were suspicious, were trying to find out what other parents allowed, others felt judged … The bad practices of children in terms of screens It's like lice and bad words, it only happens by the children of others. This is the situation clarified. His family has never been particularly technophobic. At home, a farm in the Hudson Valley, we use an iPad, we watch movies, we listen to podcasts … But he finds the smartphone much too addictive. Her eldest daughter, though in a school without screens, got hers at age 13. "Overnight, she stopped reading …" Finn, his son, has already written the date of the end of the contract on a calendar.
Fear of addiction to social networks
The children of Anna Rabinowicz, they pushed in a wooden toy atmosphere without TV. His daughter is 12, his son is two years younger. Their school, in the San Francisco area, is attended by many parents who work in tech. "It's so easy to be addicted to your smartphone. I can see that I never ask mine … " She felt like giving a gift to her son by signing the pact. And like other parents, she likes that the question of the smartphone is no longer a subject of debate, at least for the moment.
