From Brighton to Berwick and beyond - the story of a movement powered by parental love

It started with a gut instinct – that something wasn’t right. But what followed has grown into something remarkable: a national – and international – movement of more than 350,000 parents, standing up for healthier, happier childhoods. From Exeter to Edinburgh, Brighton to Berwick and beyond

Smartphone Free Childhood was never meant to be a campaign, let alone a global movement. Worried that the smartphone era was creeping up on our eight year old daughters, my friend Clare and I set up a WhatsApp group to discuss it with each other – and see if any other friends shared our concerns.

A few days later, in a fit of panic after a tricky conversation with another school mum, I decided to post about it on Instagram. It wasn't strategic – I just shared my concerns for my daughter, and suggested a simple idea: what if we joined forces and agreed to hold off on smartphones together? Wondering if any other parents felt the same, I invited them to join the group.

Turns out they really did. That post went viral. And within hours, the WhatsApp group jumped from three members to over 1,000. It quickly became a way of saying “me too” in a world where every parent seemed to feel alone.

Smartphones were arriving younger and younger in primary school backpacks, and families were feeling pressured to give in long before it felt right. The choice to wait often felt isolating – until people started talking to each other.

Within days of that first WhatsApp group maxing out, parents across the UK were setting up their own regional and school-based SFC WhatsApp groups. The idea that we had the power to resist together touched a nerve. These groups weren’t just digital support networks, they were signs of something deeper: that behind the ‘no choice’ narrative, a quiet revolution was brewing. From Northern Ireland to Norfolk, Sheffield to Somerset, parents were ready to push back against a childhood shaped by the business models of tech giants.

Something huge was happening – it felt like a terrifying and magical tornado of parental love and concern had swept into our kitchen. It was clear that families everywhere were struggling to cope, were desperate for solutions and that the government, nor the NHS or tech giants were coming to save them. My husband Joe and I realised we needed to seize the moment. We might be able to use this viral explosion to create genuine, long-term change – if we quit our jobs (in branding and journalism) and went all-in. So that’s what we did.

Fast forward fifteen wild, weird and wonderful months and we’ve set up a charity, hired a team, built products, tools, resources, alliances – and thought, talked and written about smartphones more than we ever thought possible.

In the process, Smartphone Free Childhood has become the home of that quiet revolution, and our voice – your voice – is getting louder and louder. There are now SFC groups in all 650 UK parliamentary constituencies. We’ve heard from parents in places as varied as Huddersfield and Hackney, Glasgow and Glastonbury, who all say the same thing: “I thought I was the only one.”

This movement is proving they’re not.

Visit the SFC group chats and you’ll find nurses and teachers, bankers and bus drivers, farmers and foster carers, campaigners and quiet types who’d never sent a letter to an MP in their lives. You’ll find people who vote Green and people who vote Tory. People in tower blocks and people in rural villages. What they share is not politics or postcode – it’s a deep instinct to protect their children.

And what’s been most moving to witness is how SFC has turned into much more than just a conversation about phones. We’ve seen thousands of parents from all over the UK step into their role as active citizens – organising locally, becoming more deeply involved in their communities, forming new friendships, and changing lives by giving more kids more time to grow up free from addictive algorithms.

This is a movement powered by parental love – and it’s working.

Over 140,000 families have joined forces locally through our Parent Pact, agreeing to delay smartphones until at least age 14 and social media till 16. That’s a big deal, because signing the Pact isn’t empty clicktivism – it’s a meaningful commitment to create change in your family, and wider community.

We’ve seen entire schools – even whole towns and boroughs – take collective action together and go proudly smartphone-free. Teachers say it’s transformed their classrooms. Parents tell us the pressure has lifted. Brick phone sales have doubled. Change is rippling out, one conversation at a time.

And it’s not just happening here in the UK. Parents from all corners of the world have got in touch to ask for guidance on setting up SFC in their countries. There are now 32 global SFC spinoffs and counting – from Brazil to Nigeria, Malaysia to Croatia, the USA to Uzbekistan – on every continent barring Antarctica. Parents everywhere are done with seeing their kids' childhoods swallowed up by smartphones. Because this isn’t just a British issue – it’s a generational one.

SFC isn’t about being perfect, or purist. It’s not anti-tech and we’re not yearning for a bygone era. It’s just about standing together and saying: our kids deserve better. Better than an online world designed to hook them as early as possible, for the benefit of a few ultra powerful companies in Silicon Valley. Better than a childhood traded for clicks, likes and streaks.

This moment – this movement – belongs to all of us. A conversation became a community. That community became a movement. And together we’re proving that just because things are the way they are, doesn’t mean it’s how they have to be.

Step by step, this beautiful SFC community is already reclaiming childhood – one playground, one Pact, one parent at a time. And the best is yet to come.