Thousands of parents unite to delay teens' access to cell phones

In September last year, amid growing concerns about online safety and the impact of social media on children's mental health, a mother in Barcelona's Poblenou neighborhood created a Whatsapp group chat called 'Poblenou-Adolescència Lliure de Mòbil' (Poblenou Phone-free Adolescence). Today, the initiative has more than 10,000 members on Telegram and has spread throughout Spain. 

"They felt pressured to give their children smartphones at the age of 12, which they weren't ready for," says Lluna Porta, one of the parents behind the initiative. She explains that children typically get their first smartphone when they move from primary to secondary school, and parents feel compelled to let them have one because of peer pressure. 

By the age of 12, 72% of children in Spain have a mobile phone, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE). This figure increases to 88% at the age of 13 and reaches 94% at the age of 14. Another study conducted by the Barrié Foundation found that 26% of children between the ages of 12 and 18 show problematic or compulsive use of mobile phones. 

Faced with these figures, parents in different parts of Catalonia began to create WhatsApp groups. The movement grew into Adolescència Lliure de Mòbil, aiming to remove cell phones from schools and encourage families not to buy their children their first cell phone before the age of 16. 

"When I saw it on the news, I created a Whatsapp group for the Girona region for the same purpose. I thought: 'Oh finally! I've been worrying about this for ten years, and even if it's a little late for my kids, maybe I can help others,'" says Lluna. When the initiative hit the news in November, thousands of parents like her discovered it and got involved. 

In Girona, she created the WhatsApp group for the region, which reached the maximum number of participants, 1,024, within 24 hours. They then created a WhatsApp community for 2,000 people, which quickly reached capacity too. The group then moved to Telegram, where the main channel now has over 10,000 users. 

"It escalated very quickly, which shows that the concern was there. These families did not know each other. They worried alone, without talking to each other," she explains. 

In response to the public outcry, the Catalan government launched a participatory process to gather the views of teachers, families and students across Catalonia on the use of mobile phones in schools. 

Following the process, the government announced in January that Catalan schools will be free of cell phones from next year. In primary schools, with children aged 6 to 12, phones will be banned completely, and in secondary schools their use will be restricted to educational purposes. 

"We are very happy," Lluna told Catalan News the day the ban was announced. "But we feel that the government hasn't been brave or responsible enough to include the 12 to 16 age group." 

In high schools, cell phone use will be allowed only in "exceptional cases or for specific authorized educational purposes." In practice, each school will have the autonomy to enforce the measure as they see fit, which worries parents who fear it could lead to similar problems as before. 

However, Catalan education minister Anna Simó emphasized that this measure reduces the presence of mobile phones in educational settings "to a minimum," since phones will not be used in schools, neither during breaks nor during classes, unless authorized by a teacher. 

While we wait to see how the measure unfolds and whether it will effectively delay the age at which young people receive their first cell phone, Adolescència Lliure de Mòbil has emerged as one of the few civic movements to garner such widespread consensus in an increasingly polarized world. 

To learn more about Adolescència Lliure de Mòbil and an expert's take on the issue, listen to the latest episode of our podcast, Filling the Sink.