And We’re Off!

We’re super excited to be launching Teched Off, although that said, a world that didn’t need us would be preferable. This site brings together much of the recent research and press around children and technology. It’s grim reading, but we all need to wise up to what’s going on. We suggest setting aside an hour or two to look at the sections that interest you.

Who are we and what do we want?

We're a group of mums who are worried about the extent of the ill effects of tech on kids. Because as research has shown, many aspects of children’s wellbeing and development are being affected. Potentially:

• schoolwork and concentration

• dopamine-related addiction

• premature sexualisation

• damaging attitudes to the opposite sex

• negative self-image leading to self-harming

• risk of exploitation by sexual predators

• risk of exploitation by scammers

And even if the Online Safety Bill succeeds in protecting children from the worst content and predators, it won’t be immediate. What’s more, the problem of ‘legal but harmful content’ remains, as does the problem of addiction to social media and games.

Our offering

As well as this information site, and as set out on our crowd funding page, we will create clear, short form videos to deal with the most pressing matters. Some of these may be dealt with by imminent legislation, but until then, the problems remain. Videos for parents will include:

• How to add privacy settings to Instagram

• How to add privacy settings to Snapchat

• Dopamine explained

• Protect your kids from fraudsters

• What are your options if your kids are being bullied online

We will also create short form videos for kids, like:

• How to not get scammed online

• Why do I find it so hard to put down my phone?

• Is that really who you’re talking to?

• Is what you’re seeing normal?

What are our short-term goals?

• Only 35% of parents currently set up controls for their children – we aim to:
  - Within one year, increase this number to 55%
  - Within two years, increase this number to 70%
  

• Change the culture within three years to the point that not adding these protections is considered negatively by other parents / peers
  

• Education of parents:
  Why and how they should set up controls relating to specific topics
  

• Education of children:
  Why they should be more careful online, relating to specific topics

What are our long-term goals?

• Encourage parents to resist giving young children access to smartphones until secondary school

• Encourage parents of older children to restrict usage and access to harmful content

• Ban phones in school and ensure they are not required for school use

• Campaign to raise the age of new social media accounts to 16

• Campaign to stop kids being on unverified live streams

Aren’t there organisations already doing this?

As stated on our crowdfunding page, yes there are other organisations out there working hard with similar goals. We aim to be different by a. cutting through to parents who aren't aware of how to protect their kids, and b. by making the solutions very simple to follow.

A last word

There is a broader matter to attend to that goes beyond protecting our children from unsuitable content or groomers. This is the matter of the prevailing culture of exploitation of children. By buying our children internet enabled devices, we have become willing actors in the commodification of their attention – indeed it has become so normal that nobody seems to see this for the societal malaise that it clearly is. What is childhood culture now in the West? Are brands and self-image overtaking exploration of the real world, of nature and creativity? It’s worth thinking about.