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By Shawn Smith
Actor Hugh Grant finds “holidays” from tech “bliss” and wants his children to experience the same, so he wasn’t pleased to hear of schools giving out ed tech devices such as iPads to students.
“I don’t think they’re remotely interested in the education of children. I think they’re interested in data…” the NOTTING HILL star told psychologist Jonathan Haidt. “It seems to me that’s bad enough in the adult world, but to send children to school to have their data stolen for commercial purposes…should be illegal.”
Haidt added that children have already been “handed over” to big tech companies such as Google, TikTok and Snapchat. Now he fears the younger generation is being handed over to ed tech.
“It’s the same companies…They know how to hook kids. So they are aiming for addiction. They are succeeding,” Haidt explained. “They know what they’re doing. They keep doing it. These are the companies we’re dealing with. We have to start with distrust.”
Related: Expert Slams Tech in Schools: ‘Fundamentally Incompatible’ With Learning
Grant knows firsthand the addictive nature of screens.
“Now I take these total holidays from all tech, and it is literally the only time I feel I’m properly alive,” the father of five said.
The Englishman went as far to call it “bliss” when he unplugs from screens.
“I want my children to have that. I want them to know what it’s like to be a human being,” he went on to say.
Grant is so passionate about this topic that he partners with the Closed Screens Open Minds organization which advocates for less reliance on screen-based learning, arguing that excessive screen time can lead to anxiety, sleep disruption, mental health issues and can conflict with parent’s desired screen time for their children.
Both Haidt and Grant agreed that it’s challenging enough to keep children off their screens without schools bringing in what Grant likens to a “drug pusher” into the home.
“We’ve got to let kids have that childhood and…we only get one period as parents. And if most of that is spent fighting with your kids over screens, it’s unbearable,” Haidt said.
HGTV stars Ben and Erin Napier are also well-known advocates for limited screen time for children. They don’t let their two daughters Helen, 8, and Mae, 5, use smartphones and keep them off of social media to protect them from harmful Internet trolls and to keep them grounded in real life experiences.
“It’s not a forbidden fruit thing. We don’t intend to ever treat it that way for our girls,” Erin wrote in an essay. “What we intend to teach them is that you can live the most incredible life, and you can do and see and be anything in the world, if you are not tethered to something fake.”
Hopefully, the education system ditches the excessive use of tech, but in the meantime, parents need to set up guardrails to protect their children.
Read Next: Erin Napier Reveals Why Her Daughters Won’t Have Smart Phones, Social Media
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