What the Tech: Kids and Phones in Greystones, Ireland

What the Tech: Kids and phones in Greystones, Ireland

SHREVEPORT, La. - Imagine a coastal town where nearly every child walks to school without a phone buzzing in their pocket. No TikTok, Instagram, or late-night scrolling under the covers.

What the Tech: Greystones 1 kids and phones

Imagine a coastal town where nearly every child walks to school without a phone buzzing in their pocket. No TikTok, Instagram, or late-night scrolling under the covers. That’s reality in Greystones, Ireland, a community of about 20,000 people nestled between the Irish Sea and the Wicklow Mountains. Here, parents made a bold pact: no smartphones for their children until middle school. Three years in, their experiment is making waves far beyond Ir…

What The Tech: A Irish town's pact to keep kids phone free

BY JAMEY TUCKER, Consumer Technology Reporter Greystones, Ireland is an unexpected something global to have its beginnings. But it started at a school with about 400 students. ‘It Takes a Village’ was the brainchild of principal Rachel Harper. “I could see that in children coming in the morning. A hesitation and just nerves,” says Harper. Anxiety among the youngest children wasn’t unusual. But Harper noticed it happening with older kids, too. Sh…