Aspen School District parents ask families to ‘Wait Until 8th’ to give students smartphones

A group of parents in the Aspen School District (ASD) are urging Aspen elementary and middle school parents to join a national “Wait Until 8th” campaign that encourages parents to wait until after eighth grade to give their students smartphones.

The campaign was started to protect elementary and middle school students from “distractions and dangers” of smartphones, according to the Wait Until 8th website. Parents have seen negative effects of smartphones on their children, including impeding on time spent with friends, reading, and going outdoors, said Aspen Elementary School (AES) PTO member Lauren Waldron. 

“There will be a row of four kids walking with their heads down looking at their cell phones, not even talking to one another,” she said. “To me, that – amongst the social media, anxiety, depression, and then the non-ability to interact socially with people, it just made us all think this is not a good idea to give children smartphones at such a young age.”

The rise of social media is also having a negative impact on younger students, she said. Last May, ASD joined districts across the country in suing several social media companies over the effect they can have on the mental health of students. The district is suing the parent companies of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tik Tok, Google, and Youtube.

Smartphone use has been a growing problem in schools, but it was especially heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic, Waldron said. Many parents she knows in the school district gave their children smartphones during the pandemic as a way to keep in touch with them while they were home alone.

“Students weren’t at school, and they needed to be home by themselves, so (parents) needed a safe way to get ahold of them, and a smartphone was the obvious option,” she said. “Now, I think a lot of parents are like, ‘Oh goodness, maybe a smartphone was given to them at too young of an age.'”

“The Wait Until 8th campaign is helpful because it suggests that if we’re all in this together, then kids aren’t begging their parents for a phone because they aren’t the only ones without it,” she added.

The AES PTO, Aspen Family Connections, and Aspen Education Foundation are hosting an event at 4 p.m. on Monday, March 11, to explain the Wait Until 8th campaign to parents. Brooke Shannon, founder of the campaign, will present the benefits of delayed smartphones, tips for students using the devices, and answer questions about the campaign.

The school district also held a town hall on cell phone use in schools on Thursday, March 7, where parents, students, and other community members discussed how to move forward with excessive cell phone use and the harms of social media to students.