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Date: Wednesday, November 13th 2024
Time: 4:00-5:30pm GMT
This session addresses the growing issue of peer and social pressure to be constantly online, exploring the challenges young people face in balancing their digital presence with personal well-being.
Emma Lembke is a 20-year-old social media advocate who testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on February 14, 2023, to bring awareness to the dangers social media poses to young people. As the founder of the LOG OFF Movement, Lembke advocates for the mental health of young users and calls for stricter regulations on tech companies to protect youth online.
In her testimony, she shared the harmful effects she personally experienced, having started using Instagram at age 12, and underscored the mental health crisis among young people fueled by social media. Lembke emphasized that lawmakers must act swiftly to address these concerns, advocating for greater algorithmic transparency and protections for minors from cyberbullying and harmful content.
Her testimony supports broader legislative efforts like the proposed Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which seeks to hold tech companies accountable for the negative impacts of their platforms on children. Through her advocacy, Lembke calls on lawmakers to prioritize youth safety in the digital age.
Joe Ryrie is the Co-founder and Director of Smartphone Free Childhood - a grassroots parents movement that's grown at astonishing speed in 2024.
In February this year, a heartfelt Instagram post by Joe's wife Daisy Greenwell about not wanting to give their then 8 year-old daughter a smartphone went viral, sparking a parents' WhatsApp revolution across the UK.
Two weeks later, in response to the extraordinary demand for support on this issue from parents everywhere, Joe and Daisy decided to quit their jobs and focus on building Smartphone Free Childhood into a campaigning organisation that could provide much-needed support to parents and improve childhood for a generation of kids.
Their work is focused on bringing people together to change the norm around kids and smartphones in their communities, and providing support, solidarity and solutions for parents navigating what they describe as 'the new frontier of parenting'.
Prior to this unexpected career u-turn, Joe ran his own branding consultancy Onwards, where he helped early-stage consumer businesses and charities define, launch and grow their brands. He's applying many of these learnings to Smartphone Free Childhood, which now has over 150,000 parents across their communities and is fast becoming a leading organisation in this fast-changing space.
Dr. Becky Foljambe MBBS BSc DRCOG DFSRH MRCGP is an NHS GP with additional qualifications in sexual health. She frequently works with young people and has developed PSHE Association quality-approved lesson plans and resources for secondary school-aged children, now housed with the Family Planning Association (FPA). Dr. Foljambe created these resources out of concern for young people's liberal access to misinformation and disinformation online, observing the impact on their sexual health and relationships.
Her work is rooted in a broader concern about children having access to internet-enabled smartphones at a young age, fueling her enthusiasm to contribute to the Better Phone Project, which aims to create safer devices for children. In early 2024, she founded Health Professionals for Safer Screens and has since been encouraged by the diverse, committed network of health professionals who share her concerns.
Date: Wednesday, November 13th 2024
Time: 4:00pm - 5:30pm GMT
This session addresses the growing issue of peer and social pressure to be constantly online, exploring the challenges young people face in balancing their digital presence with personal well-being.
Date: Wednesday, November 27th 2024
Time: 5:00 pm - 6:30pm GMT
This session explores the concepts of FOMO - The Fear of Missing Out - and the role of digital technology in experiences of loneliness. Focusing on the pressures of FOMO, and benefits of disconnecting from digital devices and embracing offline moments.
Date: Wednesday, December 11th 2024
Time: 5:00 pm - 6:30pm GMT
This collaborative session draws together all of the inputs from the previous sessions and HMD will present a first look at what possible solutions could look like.
*Final date and time is still to be confirmed and may be subject to change. Please check back closer to the event dates.
It’s time to talk about phones, mental health, and what can be done.
We can't do this alone. We need your help to create new solutions . We will be running a series of surveys and polls as part of this event series and you’re invited to take part!
We will update this page with additional details about the sessions as they become availabe, so be sure to sign up to make sure you don't miss out!