Cobb Parents Pledge to Raise Kids Free of Smartphones

EAST COBB — In the age of “iPad kids,” some Cobb County parents have rebuffed the notion that smartphones and social media are a rite of passage for their children.

Dozens of parents at Timber Ridge Elementary School have signed the “Wait Until 8th” pledge, promising to not get their students smartphones at least until the end of eighth grade and bar their kids from creating social media accounts until their 16th birthday.

Kelly Hall, president of the school’s Parent Teacher Association, who has rising fifth grade, second grade and pre-K kids, is one of those parents.

“It’s a two-part problem,” Hall said. “Part one is the loss of free-range childhood. Part two is the introduction of the smartphone and social media. So we’re really attacking the tail end of the dog.”

The pledge

Hall noted that while the pledge is not an official initiative of the school’s PTA, many parents in and out of the organization are on board.

Timber Ridge has an active pledge, meaning at least 10 parents in each grade level at the school have signed on. In the incoming second grade class, over 30% of parents signed on.

Fellow parent pledger Jess Wardell said the more kids that are signed on at Timber Ridge and its surrounding schools, the easier it will be for the kids who are “Wait(ing) Until 8th” to make friends in middle and high school.

“The wider you cast a net, your kid can make a new friend when they go to middle school and say, ‘Oh, you also don’t have a cellphone, great.’ I just think over time, the more people we reach in our area, the better off it will serve our kids,” Wardell said.

Adverse effects of social media

Wardell, who has students entering third grade, kindergarten and pre-K, said her main goal with the pledge is protecting her kids, especially her daughters, from the negative impacts of social media.

“Social media is a microwave to childhood. It just heats it up really fast, and not well,” Wardell said. “... I can’t imagine giving my girls, specifically, access to social media that is constantly telling you who you are, who you should be, what you should look like, what you should wear, what you should buy when I had the opportunity to have mostly a fully-developed brain (before getting social media), and that isn’t even what it was used for then.”

Wardell, Hall and fellow pledge-signing Timber Ridge parent Lisa Robinson all noted that research is on their side.

In May, the U.S. surgeon general called for warning labels to be placed on social media apps advising adverse health risks, akin to those on tobacco and alcohol.

The surgeon general has also stated that the risk of anxiety and depression doubles in children aged 12 to 15 who spend more than three hours a day on social media.

A 2023 study from the University of Michigan found that the average middle school student receives a median of 240 notifications a day and that the average child aged eight to 12 spends five-and-a-half hours a day on screens for entertainment purposes.

That number jumps for kids aged 13 to 18, who spend eight-and-a-half hours a day on screens.

A changed world

Hall said an important part of the pledge is not passing judgement on families who are choosing to give their kids smartphones and social media access, especially those who weren’t armed with information at the time of their decision making.

“They didn’t know five years ago the data we know now about what this is doing to (kids),” Hall said. “... It’s OK to say ‘We have learned something.’ … My mom brought me home from the hospital in her arms, right? If I had done that, I would’ve been arrested. ... It’s OK to say ‘I made a decision appropriate to what the standard of the world was.’”

She added that while she understands it’s human nature to get defensive, especially in light of perceived critiques on parenting choices, the most common comeback heard in the debate over giving children cellphones — safety — is not necessarily accurate.

“We can’t make ourselves unsee the news that we see. I don’t think our children are in danger. I don’t think that there are serial killers lurking around every corner, and I’m a child abuse prosecutor, that’s what I do for a living. I don’t think the danger is as real as we think it is. This,” she said, holding up her phone, “has made us afraid.”

All three moms noted that there are alternatives to smartphones, including watches that allow voice messages to be exchanged only between family members or taking the more “retro” route of a flip phone.

Hall, Wardell and Robinson all have teaching experience, and said they think the Marietta school district’s recent decision to crackdown on cellphones at its middle school and sixth grade academy through the use of pouches was an excellent choice.

They hope that Cobb Schools will follow Marietta’s lead, perhaps even banning phones from all middle campuses and using the pouches for high school students.

Until then, their plan is to keep encouraging parents to sign the pledge and build Cobb’s coalition of smartphone and social media-free kids.

“We know what the problem is and we can’t necessarily unring the bell of the world that has changed,” Hall said. “But we can just give them a longer childhood.”

For more information on the pledge, visit: WaitUntil8th.org.