Parents agree smartphone pact at school

A “smartphone pact” introduced at a local national school has received a resounding thumbs-up from parents.

Some weeks ago, St Etchen’s National School in Kinnegad asked the parents of children in their Junior Infants classes to make a commitment to not provide their children with smartphones till they were at least 12.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, deputy principal Claire Corroon explained that the new initiative has been embraced by the majority of parents.

“Last June, at our induction day for the parents and children of the incoming junior infants, we shared with them our plan to introduce a voluntary smartphone pact, aimed at addressing concerns about the use of personal smartphones by children under the age of 12.

“A few weeks ago, we contacted the parents of those classes, asking them to agree to be part of the pact. We were delighted with the scale of the agreement: fewer than a 10th of the parents opted not to be part of the pact.

“Because of the high level of support for the initiative, we then decided to roll this out to include the senior infant classes too. This time, an even smaller percentage, less than percent, opted not to be part of the pact.

“On the back of that really positive reaction, we are now extending the pact to the parents of first class children, and perhaps will keep going if the support is there.”

The St Etchen’s pact is in alignment with Department of Education recommendations and follows successful initiatives started in other areas of the country, including Waterford, Wicklow, and Kildare.

As part of the pact, St Etchen’s also asks parents not to allow their children to access to social media, all of which have an age restrictions of 13 and older, and age-restricted video games, such as Fortnite, which has an age rating of 12+.

“St Etchen’s NS hopes that other primary schools in Westmeath will follow suit, and join the school in endeavouring to make childhood smartphone-free for all of our children,” Ms Corroon said.