In the small Irish seaside town of Greystones, just south of Dublin, something genuinely unusual is happening: children are growing up without smartphones, and most of them say they are fine with it. In 2023, local parents, school principals and community members launched a voluntary program called It Takes a Village, asking families to agree not to give their children smart devices before secondary school, which most children begin at around age 12. Seventy percent of parents signed on, and the whole town threw itself behind the effort, with shopkeepers, teachers, youth workers and neighbors all playing a role. The push came after a survey found more than half of local parents reported their children were anxious, with teachers describing students who arrived at school too upset by overnight messages to focus, or who had accidentally encountered violent and disturbing content online.
What made the effort work, organizers say, is exactly what made it different from anything a single family could do alone. The most powerful thing parents discovered was that the program eliminated the argument every child makes: everyone else has one. When an entire town agrees together, that argument simply disappears. Three years on, parents say the pressure to get a smartphone before the end of primary school has essentially vanished, children are reported to be more alert in class, and kids are making plans in person and spending more time outside. The idea has since inspired similar movements in Britain and drawn interest from members of both the Irish and European parliaments. One teacher in Greystones who now speaks regularly with communities hoping to do the same describes the effort as imperfect and temporary, but says it proves something important: that parents are not powerless, and that changing the culture around children and technology is possible when a community decides to move together.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/realestate/ireland-cell-phones-children.html
