Pupils know the rules at our school – no smartphones. Here’s how it’s working | Rachel Harper

Parents and teachers are realising the damage social media can do to young children, so now we have a strict new code

• Rachel Harper is the principal of St Patrick's national school, Greystones, Ireland

As the principal of St Patrick's national School in Greystones, County Wicklow, I have witnessed a growing concern among parents and teachers. The levels of anxiety among our young children in primary schools have been steadily rising with easy access to online content and smartphones becoming a real threat to childhood. We felt we needed to take action, prompting all eight primary schools in the Greystones and Delgany area to jointly establish the It Takes A Village initiative, born out of a deep-rooted commitment to ensure the wellbeing of our children.

The process began with a realisation - childhood seems to be getting shorter and shorter. Children as young as nine years old were requesting smartphones and feeling pressure from other children to have access to apps and be constantly online. It was evident that these children were not emotionally ready to navigate the complexities of these devices and the digital world. The anxieties arising from early exposure to adult content online were becoming palpable and, as a community, we knew we had to act.

Rachel Harper is the principal of St Patrick's national school, Greystones, Ireland