Helping parents to put their kids' mobile use on hold

Posted on 10 Feb 2025

By Greg Thom, journalist, Institute of Community Directors Australia

Australian parents are banding together to ensure their kids are not robbed of their childhoods by mobile phone addiction.

That’s the premise behind Wait Mate, a new initiative that urges parents to support each other’s efforts in keeping at bay the negative effects of too much mobile use at too young an age.

Wait Mate co-founder Jessica Mendoza-Roth said participating parents were asked to sign a pledge which bound them to hit pause on their children’s smartphone use until at least high school.

The program connects parents with likeminded families in their children’s school year, giving them the confidence to push back against their own children’s resistance to forsaking mobile use by showing them others in the network who are doing the same thing.

Research has shown the negative consequences of mobile phone addiction for young Australians range from distraction from school and daily life to increased suicide rates, self-harm, anxiety and depression.

Mendoza-Roth said the objective of the Wait Mate movement was to help kids be kids for longer.

“It’s to give kids their childhood’s back and to enable them to have a play-based childhood without being addicted to a screen.”

Mendoza-Roth said she was inspired to start Wait Mate in Australia after seeing a similar program operating in the United States.

She said the Australian version had met with great success since its launch just over six months ago.

Hear more from Mendoza-Roth on Wait Mate in the Community Advocate podcast.