Be in Touch

With big thanks to Renata Schoeman we were honoured to be given the opportunity, in the latest edition of South African Psychiatry, to explore one of the great paradoxes of our time: unprecedented connectivity coinciding with a sharp, global decline in adolescent mental health since approximately 2012.

It has become ever clearer to both mental health professionals, as well as parents, caregivers and educators in the Smartphone Free Childhood community, that connectivity does not automatically translate into the connection that children, adolescents and indeed adults fundamentally need to thrive. In fact, connectivity is disrupting connection.

We would love to hear your thoughts?
🔗Read more: https://lnkd.in/d47vKJdX

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As I prepare myself for my eldest to head out into the big world (like HOW and WHEN did that happen??), family time is starting to feel extremely darn precious!

But like every single parent these days, creating the space and then being truly present requires real effort - and a big interrupter is those frikkin screens! I can say my screen time is mostly all about work, but hey - let's be honest here. My weary 50-something brain feels the compulsive lure as much as any teen's young, fresh, undeveloped pre-frontal cortex.

The new buzz word, my friends, is FRICTION - putting clever layers between you and your phones, making it harder to access the apps that keep hooking you into a loop of mindless scrolling.

🙌 So that's why I was so excited to meet Andrew D. innovator of an incredible local solution, the Swiitch Tag. This clever piece of tech works by adding intentional friction: by pairing a physical tag with the Swiitch app, you can lock your distracting apps with a simple tap.

If you’re looking for an innovative and practical way to manage your phone (instead of it managing you), grab an exclusive 10% discount on your Swiitch Tag, using the code SFC-SA10 at this link: https://tinyurl.com/SFC-SA-Swiitch

👀 Our kids are always watching and it's more important now than ever to choose connection over scrolling!

🔗 Read more: http://sfc-sa.co.za/presence-is-a-practice

When we started this journey 8 years ago, there was little research and no legal precedent to back up what every parent of teens has known all along - that something was very wrong. This changes everything.

Meta and Google found liable in social media addiction trial The verdict marks the end of a five-week trial on the addictive nature of social media platforms.

Sextortion rings led by teens are operating in South African schools too. The horror of a teen realizing that a fellow student, possibly even one from a rival school, has their n**e pic is unfathomable. And too often it is ending in tragedy.
Please feel free to grab our guide on how to manage sextortion scams. We turned all the practical steps we've learnt into a school poster with a QR code - which enables teens to access the help they need when they need it!
https://beintouch.org.za/resources/

Teen Accused of Running Massive Sextortion Ring on 21 High School Classmates: Cops Eighteen-year-old Zachariah Meyers, a high school senior in Western Pennsylvania, is accused of targeting 21 fellow classmates in a “high-level sextortion sc...

No child deserves the pain and suffering of a smartphone or a tablet before high school.