ST. LOUIS — St. Louis area schools are asking parents and guardians to hold back on letting their kids use smartphones and social media.
As of June 27, A mix of 38 school districts and private schools issued the joint statement, which includes Ferguson-Florissant School District, Jennings School District and the Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School.
The institutions recommend that parents "intentionally limit and monitor their children’s use of these technologies and that they consider delaying their use as long as possible into adolescence."
The statement suggested that "surveys of middle and high school students have long revealed a negative relationship between screen time and happiness, but the intentionally addictive properties of smartphones and social media applications continue to induce significant levels of use by young people."
The schools argued that with the rise of smartphone and social media use among children and adolescents, "a growing body of research points to surges in childhood loneliness, social isolation, attention deficit, and sleep insufficiency over this period."
The joint statement did not outline policy changes at any specific schools, such as a phone ban. It comes after a recent push from the Edwardsville School District to enact a statewide limit on phone use in Illinois classrooms.
Click here to read the full statement.
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