The Catholic Weekly 5 June 2022

catholicweekly.com.au 2 NEWS 5, June, 2022 FROMPAGE 1 A Head of Student Wellbeing at a Sydney girl’s school said “I can tell you that most of the issues I deal with in my role begin on smart phones. “They are so detrimental to themental health andwell-be- ing of our young people. “I hope and pray that this initiative will support many parents to challenge the so- cial norms for the sake of our children. Well done and thank you.” Heads Up Alliance mem- bers make a commitment to each other to delay giving chil- dren smart phones and social media until at least Year 9, supporting each other through mutual accountability. Through these commit- ments, they hope it will not only decrease feelings of iso- lation felt by kids who say they are the only ones in their peer groups without access to a smart phone as well as em- power parents as a group to say no. Every three months, mem- bers receive emails of support as well as the details of other parents in the group who they can network with. The Head Up Alliance founder Dany Elachi said he was “completely over- Support grows whelmed” by the enormous support he had receivedwhich he felt demonstrates the level of disquiet that existed among parents. The father-of-five said scores of people from around the world had asked how they could establish the alliance in their local school community in a bid to protect their chil- dren’s all too fleeting child- hoods. “The fun, magic and innocence of childhood is just too precious and that’s what we are trying to protect,” he said. “Even though many par- ents feel uneasy about smart phones in young hands, our children’s in- cessant pleading can cause us to doubt our decisions. “By rallying like-minded par- ents and forming The Heads Up Alliance, we are finally able to see in a very focused way that there are many families just like ours who have decid- ed to delay social media and smart phone use. “We have received so much positive feedback from The Catholic Weekly article, with countless emails of support from all over Australia and in- credibly overseas. “Many, many people of- fered to start upHeads Up Alli- ances in their own schools and we’ve had to ask them to be a little patient while we estab- lish the program on a broader scale. “We have a number of aca- demics willing to assist us with this, so we are very excited to be putting our heads together to see what we will come up with.” Steve Biddulph, one of the world’s best known authorities on children whose books have sold millions worldwide, said he has been making the plea for everyone to be on the same page in not getting kid’s smart phones until later high school years. He said for reasons from bullying, porn exposure and simple stress overload, he applauded The Heads Up Alliance for starting a move- ment to normalise “holding out” against the tech invasion which was robbing kids of their childhood. “Parents are keen to have that kind of peer support to make a stand, it’s a focused but important shift,” he said. “Thoughtful parents, who I n this edition News Movies, books Archbishop’s homily Editorial & Letters 1-13 10-11 25 28-29 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Kenny (02) 9390 5348 EDITOR Peter Rosengren (02) 9390 5400 REPORTERS Marilyn Rodrigues (02) 9390 5410 Debbie Cramsie (02) 9390 5396 Adam Wesselinoff (02) 9390 5400 SUBSCRIPTIONS Rita Ng (02) 9390 5411 ADVERTISING AND MARKETING Steve Richards (02) 9390 5404 Katie Clarke (02) 9390 5402 DESIGNERS Renate Cassis Mathew De Sousa Our story begins in 1839 with the Australasian Chronicle, continuing with the Freeman’s Journal in 1850. Level 13, Polding Centre, 133 Liverpool Street, Sydney, NSW 2000. Phone (02) 9390 5400 | Vol 73, No 5237 The Catholic Weekly is published by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney ABN 60 471 267 587 and is printed by Spotpress Pty Ltd, 24-26 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville NSW 2204. Don’t tell me that guns aren’t the problem, people are. I’m sick of hearing it. The darkness first takes our children who then kill our children, using the guns that are easier to obtain than aspirin. We sa- cralize death’s instruments and then are surprised that death uses them.” - Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, following the Uvalde school kill- ings of 21 students and teachers on 24 May QUOTABLE DOWNLOAD THE OUR FAITH OUR WORKS APP Your one-stop location for Mass and Confession times, spiritual reflections and meditations, podcasts, local Catholic news, the Go Make Disciples mission plan, and much more. To download the app visit ourfaithourworks.org/app or scan the QR Code. 15, May, 2022 A NETWORK of Catholic par- ents in Sydney’s south have banded together to ban their children’s access to social me- dia and smartphones until at least Year 9. In a bold move, The Heads Up Alliance, made up of a growing group of families from Kingsgrove’s Our Lady of Fatima Primary School and St Ursula’s College, has been established due to concerns about the harmful effects of the technology on children. Parents who sign up agree not to give their kids access to apps including Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok, sup- porting each other through mutual accountability. Through these commit- ments, they hope it will not only decrease feelings of iso- lation felt by kids who say they are the only ones in their peer groups without access to a smartphone as well as em- power parents as a group to say no. Every three months, mem- bers receive emails of support as well as the details of other parents in the group who they can network with. Around 30 families have signed up, with more jump- ing on to register weekly. The group now hopes to ex- pand the alliance into other schools. NSW Labor Leader and Member for Kogarah Chris Minns said children’s phone use had been a huge concern for him for some time and that he is very supportive of The Heads Up Alliance and their work. “As a father of three boys, Anna and I have been con- cerned about the impact of phones and other devices on children for some time,” he said. “Our kids are the first gen- eration to grow up immersed in technology and we don’t fully understand what this means for their young and de- veloping minds. “I have been looking for ideas to relieve the social pres- sure our kids feel to ‘fit in’ and to be online because ‘every- one else is’ so it is incredibly fortunate that an initiative like The Heads Up Alliance has emerged in my local area. “I look forward to work- ing with the parents at Heads Up to see how I can support them.” Latest research from the Australian Communications and Media Authority has found that almost half (46 per cent) of Australian children aged between 6 to 13 years use a mobile phone - up from 41 per cent in 2015. Negative issues associat- ed with children’s access to smartphones include addic- tion, academic distraction, impaired sleep, increases in Sydney parents concerned about harms of social media are pushing back o ¾ Debbie Cramsie Saving childho anxiety and depression risks, exposure of children to sexu- alised content and increased risk of bullying. The brain behind The Heads Up Alliance, Dany Ela- chi said he was simply trying to protect his children’s “al- ready too fleeting” childhood. The father-of-five acknowl- edges that while technology has its benefits, it also has a dark side. “Smartphones and their apps are designed by teams of people looking at ways purely to hook children and get them addicted, it’s that simple,” he said. “The peer pressure on our children to have social media, and their fear of missing out on online social interactions with friends, is enormous. “Even though many par- ents feel uneasy about smart- phones in young hands, our children’s incessant pleading can cause us to doubt our de- cisions. “By rallying like-mind- ed parents and forming The Heads Up Alliance, we are fi- nally able to see in a very fo- cused way that there aremany families just like ours who have decided to delay social media and smartphone use. Mr Elachi decided to es- tablish the alliance after he and wife Cynthia reluctantly agreed to give their 10-year- old daughter one of their old phones. Our children’s childhood is so fleeting; do we really want to up their childhoods for the sa a bit of Instagram or Snapcha Dany Elachi He said the change they saw in est child was conce “She inherited from us when she 5 after we upgrad saw a change in he stantly,” he said. “It took over e moment of her life was constantly b knew she was taki without our know using it] under th midnight. “We have five while some famili able to manage t are both busy wor and knew this was a long road of arg pain. Dany Elachi, founder of The Heads UpAlliance, and wife Cynthia. Mother-of-two Adamson with sons 9, (left) and Emmanu PHOTO: ALPHON NEWS H ave you ever put down your device - phone, laptop, or tablet, after spend- ing time on the internet, and just felt completely “yuk”? Exhaustedby thebickering in the comments section? De- pressed by how horrible some people are? Overwhelmed and shattered, like your mind is like a dropped mirror, from scrolling through the ran- dom gripes of your friends on Facebook. If you are an adult ¾ Steve Biddulph Parents’ alliance will whose life and identity are well established, with friends who love you and a sense of accomplishment behind you, then you can shrug off this stuff, and decide to just spend less time “doom scrolling” as it is so aptly called. But for teenagers it’s differ- ent. Those social media apps and sites might be where their social life has actually come to live. And they are at their most vulnerable stage, emo- tionally, in their whole lives. Out of our protective arms, wanting to be private some- times, having to spend most of the day away from home, but left to the mercies of a competitive, messed up peer group. No longer in the re- assuring hold of a small tight knit community or extend- ed family, as humans were designed for, but exposed to literally anyone in the world who cares to slip alongside them in “social” media. You can be overly dramatic about this, but it’s not quite fantasy - last month a teenage girl right here in Sydney was violently raped by a teenage boy after they had met for the first time at Kogarah railway station. He had “groomed” her on social media first, and presumably gained her trust. Her injuries were so grave she was rushed to hospital. He was charged with not one but three counts of assault. It included chok- ing, which is currently the vogue in online pornography, and become such a problem that it’s been made a separate offence. Porn is the number one internet risk for teenage boys since it shapes their sex- uality, their idea of what sex is. And so they in turn become a danger to girls. The more pervasive danger though is simply to mental health. US researcher Jill Twenge became world famous after documenting the rapid rise of anxiety, depression, and self harm, and suicide (which had been declining in teenagers for many years) which coin- cided strongly with the take up of mobile devices by teen- agers. Devices mostly (since they are expensive items) bought for them by their par- ents. Others have questioned Twenge’s findings, but sub- sequent studies have shown that it’s not just social media alone, but in a mix with other risk factors, which tips a child Even though many parents feel uneasy about smart- phones in young hands, our chil- dren’s incessant plead- ing can cause us to doubt our decisions.” Dany Elachi