'Wait Until 8th': Campaign against early smartphone use gains momentum in Chicagoland

CHICAGO - A grassroots "collective-action" solution to keep smartphones out of the hands of young children is quickly gaining steam.

Wait Until 8th is an online campaign where parents formally pledge to hold off on equipping their children with smartphones until 8th grade. It recently exceeded 60,000 pledges nationwide.

"The sooner you start thinking about it as a parent, the less pressure is going to be on you down the road," said Mark SooHoo, who is leading the campaign in north suburban Wilmette. "You can take the pledge as soon as you have a rising kindergartner, and it's shocking to see how early kids hear these sorts of questions come up."

SooHoo said over the past year alone, there has been a "5X" increase in pledges in Wilmette. He attributes the huge spike, in part, to Jonathan Haidt's bestseller, The Anxious Generation, being released earlier this year. Haidt's book details the many negative health impacts smartphones have on children.

SooHoo described Wait Until 8th as a "collective-action" solution that is designed for parents of children in the same school to become empowered as a group and also connect with one another. As soon as ten parents from a single class take the pledge, an email goes out connecting them with one another.

"The number one thing we hear from people is, 'I don't want my child to be left out," said SooHoo. "But we do want them to be left out of bullying. We want them to be left out of the negative body issues. We want them to be left out of the negative mental health impacts of smartphones on our kids, and so that's where joining with the pledge has such power."

Importantly, the Wait Until 8th pledge puts no restrictions on simpler devices like flip-phones and basic watches, which still allow kids to make calls and send texts without exposing them to the dangers of social media apps, video game addiction, and mobile internet access.

SooHoo encouraged parents to take the pledge by visiting waituntil8th.org and sharing it with five parents in their child's same class.