Parents urged to join Wait Mate online pledge to delay giving kids smartphones until at least high school

Parents from a handful of Geraldton schools have vowed to delay giving their children smartphones and are encouraging more Mid West parents to take the online pledge. The Wait Mate movement was started by five parents 18 months ago and has now received almost 15,000 pledges from parents. It involves vowing to not give their children a smartphone until at least high school — many instead giving their children “dumb phones”. Parents in four Geraldton schools have signed up to Wait Mate so far. The program, which recently received $6.5 million in South Australia, imagines a world where kids are not exposed to addictive apps and never-ending notifications. Parents can sign up online with their child’s school and age group, and when more than 10 children in an age group have signed up, their identities are shared with each other in the name of solidarity and support. Emily Harrison, SA lead for Wait Mate, said regional parents faced different challenges than metropolitan parents but still had support available to them. “I would just say don’t underestimate the power of community,” she said. “I would almost argue that in the regions, you know it better than us city folk.” Ms Harrison said the pledge served a dual purpose — helping parents feel connected and stopping children from feeling alone. Geraldton teacher Peter Fiorenza said device use by his students included playing online games, which had not been affected by the social media ban for under-16s that was introduced this month. He said it was important for schools to teach internet research and introduce children to online learning tools. Mr Fiorenza said although he did not believe in a nanny state, this was a situation “where parents and guardians are out of their depth in respect to understanding social media or the net and government needs to pull things back so we can all address the problem better.” Mr Fiorenza said he had ongoing discussions in his classroom about the ban. “I’m all about education,” he said. “I’m not really happy about the government taking control ... with these young people. But I think this is a whole new ball game with social media, with the internet, with AI.” Another local teacher, Ryan Blanchett, said it could be difficult for some parents to understand how much social media use had changed in recent times and it was important to know exactly what their kids were accessing online. “I think there’s a bit of an idea of ‘how bad can it really be?’. And it really is that bad,” he said. “I think it’s got to be a cultural, social shift. I think everyone knows that social media has inherent negatives about it, and we just have to trust our abilities as humans to actually understand that.” Mr Blanchett said he did not support the ban because it limited young people’s right to information. “”I think a lot of kids actually get quite surprised when I say I’m against it,” he said. “It’s funny to have that conversation.” Headspace and the eSafety Commissioner both offer help on their websites about how to talk to young people about the social media ban. Caroline Thain, national clinical adviser for headspace, said: “As supportive adults, we can say ‘This is going to be a big change for you. I understand this is a big source of support and connection ... and this is going to feel hard’.”