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Guiding Digital Childhoods

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Guiding Digital Childhoods 

A CAP-wide commitment to help families build healthy, balanced digital habits: delaying smartphones and social media, keeping school time phone-free, and creating more space for play, friendship and independence.

Real Life First | Delay is OK | Growing Up Offline

  • Chiltern Area Partnership Schools | Parent Talk with Dr Susie Davies | 2026 This recorded session features Dr Susie Davies (Papaya) speaking to parents across the Chiltern Area Partnership as part of our Guiding Digital Childhoods work. The talk offers a clear, balanced and compassionate exploration of smartphones, social media and childhood, grounded in research and lived parental experience. The focus is on confidence rather than rules, and on how collective, community-led approaches can reduce pressure on families while supporting healthier, age-appropriate choices for children - particularly through the primary and early secondary years. We hope parents find this a reassuring and thought-provoking watch, whether you are just starting to think about these issues or are already actively navigating them at home.

Guiding Digital Childhoods- Voluntary Family Register – Fill in form

Make your family’s commitment to delay smartphones (to Y9), delay social media (to 16), keep school‑time phone-free, and build more real-world independence, at a pace that suits your child.

How It Works

  • Optional and non‑judgemental
  • Anonymous register (aggregate totals only)
  • Change or withdraw at any time (simply let the school know)

 

Taking it Further: Parent-to-Parent Support

In addition to this local CAP pledge, many families also choose to engage with Smartphone Free Childhood, a national, parent-led movement that aligns closely with our work and has endorsed the Guiding Digital Childhoods project.

Smartphone Free Childhood supports parents to:

  • Delay smartphones until 14
  • Delay social media until 16
  • Reduce social pressure by acting together
  • Connect with other parents locally and nationally

Signing their Parent Pact is optional, anonymous, and takes around two minutes.
It also sends a powerful message to policymakers that this is something families genuinely care about.

�� Sign the Smartphone Free Childhood Parent Pact:
https://www.smartphonefreechildhood.org/parent-pact

�� Join parent-to-parent WhatsApp support (by region and school):
https://linktr.ee/joinsmartphonefreechildhood