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Smartphone Free Childhood: What It Means for Under-8s

By 10 August 20268 min read
A boy in glasses and a younger girl play at an old water pump in a frosty park

Smartphone Free Childhood explained for parents of young children: the parent pact, its age plan, what UK guidance says, and what to decide now.

Smartphone Free Childhood is a UK parent campaign, founded in 2024, that asks families to delay a child's first smartphone until at least 14 and social media until 16, by signing a parent pact with other families at the same school. For a parent of a four-year-old, it's a decision years away, but some of it starts now.

This page explains what the campaign is and what it asks, using its own website. It then sets out what UK government guidance says for young children, what is still to come for older ones, and what the evidence does and doesn't show. It doesn't tell you whether to sign.

What is Smartphone Free Childhood?

It's a movement of parents who want to delay smartphones and social media together, so no child is the only one without. According to its own story, it was founded in February 2024. At the start of that year two friends, Daisy and Clare, had set up a WhatsApp group to support each other in holding off on smartphones. An Instagram post by Daisy went viral, thousands of parents joined, and local groups spread across the UK.

Daisy Greenwell and her husband Joe Ryrie then left their jobs to run it, and the campaign's team page lists them as co-founders and directors. The campaign describes itself as "not anti-tech" but "pro childhood", and says it is about "balance, not banning".

Its core argument is about peer pressure. When most of a class has a phone, saying no feels like cutting your child off from their friends. The campaign's answer is for families to wait together, so the norm shifts.

What is the Smartphone Free Childhood pact?

The Parent Pact is a pledge to wait: no smartphone until at least 14, and no social media until 16. The campaign's solution page calls it "a collective agreement" and says it is organised around school communities, so the more families who sign in an area, the more powerful it becomes.

Parents sign online by choosing their child's school, and the campaign's site shows how many families at each school have signed. Its impact page says the pact launched in September 2024 and reports more than 180,000 signatories. Those are the campaign's own figures.

It's a pledge rather than a legal contract. What it gives you is a way to find other parents in your child's year who intend the same thing.

What age does the campaign suggest for a first phone?

It suggests no phone of their own before 11, a basic phone from 11 to 14, and a smartphone only after that. The campaign's age guide sets out four stages, while saying every family is different:

  • 0 to 11, What the campaign suggests: In most cases, no phone of their own, smart or basic
  • 11 to 14, What the campaign suggests: A simple phone for calls and texts, no internet or social media
  • 14 to 16, What the campaign suggests: A "follow-on" phone: a smartphone with strong parental controls, still no social media
  • 16 and over, What the campaign suggests: A full smartphone, with continuing support

That is the campaign's recommendation, not official guidance. UK government guidance does not set an age for a first phone. When the government announced the 5 to 16 guidance, it said the advice might cover when a child should get a first smartphone, but that guidance is still to come (see below).

For context, most children get a phone around the move to secondary school. In Ofcom's survey of parents, published in May 2026, ownership was a little over half at age 10 and more than eight in ten at 11. Of the children who owned a phone, 96 per cent had a smartphone rather than a basic one.

Is Smartphone Free Childhood a charity?

Partly. It runs a charitable fund held by an existing registered charity, alongside a not-for-profit company. Its charitable status page explains that the Smartphone Free Childhood Charitable Fund is a restricted fund under Prism the Gift Fund (charity number 1099682), which handles governance and finance. The campaign says this gives it full charitable status and oversight, and lets it claim Gift Aid on eligible donations.

Alongside that, Smartphone Free Childhood Limited is a company limited by guarantee (number 16041317), with no shareholders. The campaign says it uses the company for work outside charity rules, such as political campaigning. That's the company you'll find on Companies House. The charity number on its site is Prism the Gift Fund's, as the site's own footer says.

What does government guidance say for under-5s?

For under-5s, the UK government now has screen time guidance, and it says social media should be avoided. Best Start in Life advises:

  • Under 2 years: "Avoid screen time other than for shared activities with family that encourage bonding, interaction and conversation." It gives video calls with friends and family and looking through digital photo albums together as examples.
  • 2 to 5 years: "Try to keep it to 1 hour a day. Less if possible."
  • Social media: "Social media isn't made for young brains, so it should be avoided."

It also asks parents to "Lead by example", because children will copy your screen habits. For a four-year-old, that line matters more than any pact. The rest of it, line by line, is in our guide to UK screen time guidance.

What's changing for older children?

Two things: new screen guidance for 5 to 16 year olds is being written, and the government plans to ban social media for under-16s. On 8 June 2026 the government announced guidance for parents of children aged 5 to 16. The government says an independent expert group, led jointly by Professor Russell Viner and Dame Rachel de Souza, who is Children's Commissioner for England, will inform it. At our last check it was still unpublished, so look on GOV.UK before trusting anything you read about its contents.

A week later, the government announced a ban on social media platforms offering services to under-16s, planning to use the same model as Australia. It named Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X, said it does not intend to include messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal, and expects the protections to come into force in spring 2027.

If the ban goes ahead as announced, it covers much of the same ground as the social media half of the pact. It says nothing about when a child should have a phone.

Is there evidence that waiting helps?

The UK Chief Medical Officers found links between screen use and poorer mental health, but not clear evidence that one causes the other. That was their reading, in a 2019 commentary, of a map of the research they had commissioned. They wrote that it "does not present evidence of a causal relationship" between screen-based activities and mental health problems, though some studies had found associations.

They still advised "a precautionary approach", to be balanced against the potential benefits children can get from their screen use. The campaign reads the evidence more strongly than that and says so on its mission page. The government's expert group for 5 to 16 year olds will review the evidence again.

So there's room for sensible families to disagree. Waiting is a precaution many parents are choosing, not a rule that research has settled.

What can you decide while your child is four?

The phone itself is years off. The habits that make waiting easier start much earlier, and most of them come straight from the under-5 guidance:

  • Your own phone. Best Start in Life puts it plainly: "they'll copy your screen use habits". The phone you put away at dinner is the first lesson.
  • Screen-free rooms. Its advice is to "Keep bedrooms and mealtimes free from screens". Set that up now, and no phones in bedrooms at 11 is a rule your child already knows, not a new fight.
  • Shared, not solo. Best Start in Life suggests you "Avoid young children using screens alone". A tablet used together on the sofa is a different habit from one used alone in a bedroom.
  • Other parents. The pact works because families at the same school agree. Reception is when you meet those parents, long before anyone asks for a phone.

Children also need good things to do instead, which is where play earns its place. For a three to eight year old, a children's yoga mat with numbered poses is one option for screen-free time they can run themselves. When the time comes to write the house rules down, start from our family screen time rules, and the screen time by age guide sets out what the guidance does and doesn't say at each stage.

When is it worth talking to someone?

Daily rows over screens, or worries about sleep, mood, speech or how your child is behaving, are worth raising with a health visitor or your GP. Once they're at school, their class teacher can tell you how they seem during the day, and what the school's own phone policy is.

Frequently asked questions

Does Smartphone Free Childhood mean no screens at all?

No. The campaign's own age guide says it is not saying 'no internet' or 'no screens'. Its focus is a child's own smartphone and social media. For primary-age children it suggests shared experiences instead, such as watching TV or films together, with any online schoolwork done on a shared family laptop or computer in a communal space.

Does the parent pact cover tablets?

The pact itself is about smartphones and social media. The campaign's age guide does add a note on tablets, though: it says they can bring many of the same distractions and risks as a smartphone if left unsupervised. For under-5s, Best Start in Life's advice to limit total screen time applies whichever screen it is.

Is WhatsApp part of the under-16 social media ban?

Not as planned. The government has said it does not intend messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal to be included, and that it plans to follow the Australian model, covering platforms such as Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X. The detail will be set in regulations, so check GOV.UK nearer the time.

What is a brick phone?

It's an informal name for a basic mobile that makes calls and sends texts, with no internet browser, app store or social media. Smartphone Free Childhood suggests a phone like this as the first phone for 11 to 14 year olds, for example once they start walking to school or going out alone, before any smartphone at 14 or later.

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