Pre Nursery - Grade 5:
By signing this pledge, you promise not to give your child a smartphone until at least the end of Grade 5.
Grade 6 - Grade 8:
By signing this pledge, you promise not to give your child an unfiltered smartphone (meaning, no access to social media or the internet) until at least the end of Grade 8.
The pledge will encourage parents to delay giving their children a smartphone and access to social media apps until at least Grade 8, with the goal of decreasing pressure and potential dangers associated with the devices.
Parents are urged to take the pledge to help delay the increasing presence of unfiltered smartphones and social media in schools, social settings, and family meals.
The pledge will empower parents to unite together, which will decrease the pressure within the child’s grade to have an unfiltered smartphone or certain social media apps.
By signing the online pledge, you promise not to give your child an unfiltered smartphone or access to certain social media apps (Tik Tok; Instagram; Facebook; Snapchat; Twitter; Lemon 8) until at least Grade 8 as long as at least 10 families total from your child’s grade pledge. This means either giving them a filtered smartphone (which you can find out more about here), or a flip phone.
Once 10 families have pledged you will be notified that the pledge is in effect!
We will then have one parent from each group or grade reach out to those families that have pledged to set up a WhatsApp group so you can all begin collaborating together on ‘issues of the day’ and ways to support each other, including when your children seek to apply significant pressure to get an unfiltered smartphone.
You will hear from the parent liasion of your grade with next steps.
The pledge is anonymous until the pledge becomes active. Once 10 or more families from the same grade sign, then the pledge becomes "active," and you will be notified along with the other parents who have signed from the grade in a group email. At that point, the pledge is not anonymous and you know the other families on board.
It will help to know that other parents are in a similar situation as you, as this is an emerging issue that is not going away. The group can share resources, raise awareness, discuss recurring themes and issues and generally support each other. It also prevents the frequent comment from our children, “But everyone has it (phone, social media app, etc.)!”
Your pledge is not posted anywhere or made known publicly beyond the group mentioned above.
The only other people who know you have signed the pledge are the parents from your child's grade, and ONLY IF you have an active pledge.
We are proud to say we have active pledges in JK - Grade 8!
Absolutely not!
By signing the pledge, you are agreeing to wait until AT LEAST the end of Grade 8 before you permit your child to have an unfiltered smartphone or use certain social media apps.
This does not mean that you agree to give them this technology at the end of Grade 8.
You are delaying this technology until at least the end of Grade 8, and then as a family you can reassess the situation at that time.
For those children that require access to a phone for safety reasons (carpool, bussing, walking, etc.), consider buying your child a basic ‘kosher’ phone (i.e. flip phone), or installing a filter on the child’s smartphone that blocks certain social media apps. If you would like your child to have a basic phone that just calls and texts, you still can sign the pledge. The basic phone avoids many of the distractions and dangers of an unfiltered smartphone. We believe that all the major carriers continue to offer basic cell phones that do not require data plans.
A smartphone is a mobile phone that has access to an internet browser and an App Store. A basic phone is a phone that is used for the basic purpose of making calls and receiving calls. It also allows users to send and receive text messages. The Wait Until 8 pledge is encouraging parents to delay providing their children with an unfiltered smartphone until at least the Grade 8. If you would like your child to have a basic phone that just calls and texts, you still can sign the pledge! The basic phone avoids many of the distractions and dangers of the smartphone. Similarly, if your child already has a smartphone, you can pledge to add a filter that blocks certain social media and web browser apps.
Grow Electronics. https://growelectronics.ca/ is a kosher electronics store in the Bathurst / Lawrence area. They sell flip phones, and also kosher smartphones that only have talk, text and email.
In addition, the store works with TAG (Technology Awareness Group) if you would like to convert an unfiltered smartphone into a filtered smartphone, which you can learn more about by visiting www.tagtoronto.org or HelpDesk@TAGToronto.org.
MY CHILD ALREADY HAS A SMARTPHONE. IS IT TOO LATE TO BE PART OF THIS MOVEMENT?
No!
It is never too late to change your mind as a parent. Please feel free to share with your child that other families in their grade have decided it is better to wait, than to have a smartphone.
You can discuss with your child the many reasons families in their community are waiting until children are older.
You can also change your unfiltered smartphone to a filtered smartphone. To learn more about what this is and how to do it, click here.
If your child has siblings that have received a phone earlier than Grade 8, we expect your younger children may be very upset to find out they will not be receiving one at the same age as their older sibling.
You can articulate that after much thought, you have concluded that it would be best to wait until Grade 8 before they receive a phone. You can ensure them that other children in their grade are following the same path and they will not be the only person without a smartphone.