Experts, advocates make case for smartphone-free childhood [Video]

It’s a question parents across the globe are grappling with: should my child have a smartphone?

Some advocates and experts say the answer is clear — they shouldn’t.

“I think we all kind of knew it in the pit of our stomach all along,” Jenna Poste, a member of a new Canadian advocacy group Unplugged Canada, said in an interview at her home in Hammonds Plains, N.S.

“We need to start to rethink the norms that have been created in society where we’ve really shifted to a phone-based childhood.”

Unplugged Canada was inspired by similar movements around the world, like Wait Until 8th in the United States and Smartphone Free Childhood in the United Kingdom.

The group is urging parents across the country to pledge to delay giving their children a smartphone until high school.