Supports for Parents & Families

Online Resources

Firstly, we would highly recommend that parents take a look at the following excellent websites: 

There is a wealth of useful information there including:

The Anxious Generation

We would also recommend reading ‘The Anxious Generation’ by Jonathan Haidt (available from Easons here), subscribing to his ‘After Babel’ substack to get informative relevant articles direct to your email inbox, and taking a look at The Anxious Generation / TAG Movement website.

“Overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world are the major reasons why children born after 1995 became the anxious generation”

- Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness

Managing smart-screens in your home

Here is a very helpful slide from the presentation that Dr. Brian Barron (Director of Waterford Education Support Centre, and co-founder of Gen Free) gave at the launch of Rebels Unplugged.

The number one safety rule for any child who already has a smartphone / smart-screen should be to only allow access in communal areas of the home, under supervision. No smartphones in bedrooms, bathrooms or behind closed doors. These are the places where a child/teen may be more likely to access inappropriate content, or where they may be coerced into sharing intimate images of themselves.

Brian’s talk is impactful, eye-opening, informative and we would highly recommend that every parent attend one of his upcoming talks. If you’d like more information (or to book him to deliver a talk) he can be reached at director@wtc.ie.

SFCI Whatsapp Community

If you’d like to be able to connect remotely with other like-minded parents in your locality, you might find the Smartphone Free Childhood Ireland (SFCI) community Whatsapp groups helpful. If so, you’ll find a link to join your local group at https://smartphonefree.ie/help-for-parents/resources/ (QR code number 3).

More coming soon

In time, we will add more resources & links to this page, and we aim to possibly run in-person events (family fun days, more cyber-safety talks etc) to help create opportunities for real life connection, to open up conversations, and explore how we can all support each other in a safe way, free from judgement.