Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, June 5 (Xinhua) in order to protect their children's mental health and innocent childhood, some parents in the seaside town of Graystone in Ireland have reached an agreement to ban primary school students from using smartphones until they enter middle school. The agreement is supported by the country's health minister, who called on Ireland to become a world leader in protecting children and teenagers from the digital world.

Parents in the town of Graystone hope the agreement will reduce children's anxiety and exposure to inappropriate content from using smartphones, the Guardian reported. There are eight primary schools in the town, and parents' associations can voluntarily join the agreement, which will be implemented not only at school but also at home. Schools in the town have banned or restricted the use of mobile phones, but the influence of social media remains.

Laura Bourne, a parent involved in the agreement, said: "if everyone does this, you won't feel like a weirdo." it makes it easier to say no, and the longer we can keep their innocence, the better. "

Rachel Harper, an elementary school principal who launched the initiative, said that while not all parents are involved in the agreement, enough parents have joined to make a real difference. "I hope this will become the new normal in the future." She told the Guardian.

Irish Health Minister Stephen Townley, who lives near Graystons and has three children, also took note of the agreement and published a supportive article in the Irish Times last week. "Ireland can and must be a world leader in ensuring that children and teenagers are not targeted and harmed by the digital world." "We have to make it easier for parents to limit what their children have access to," he wrote. "

The impact of smartphones on children has attracted more and more attention, and many studies have tried to analyze whether it has a lasting effect on the brain. CTOnews.com notes that a study being conducted by the National Institutes of Health has found that children who spend more than two hours a day in front of the screen score lower on tests of thinking and language skills. A small study published in 2019 in a peer-reviewed journal of pediatrics supports the theory that excessive exposure to screens in early childhood may be associated with a lower level of brain development.

Meanwhile, a town in India has banned people under the age of 18 from using smartphones and will face small fines if they are found to be using smartphones, the Times of India reported. Digital detoxification is also being carried out nightly in an Indian village where all smartphone users-children and adults alike-are banned from using the devices between 7 pm and 08:30 every night.

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