Port Stephens Unplugged is officially launched. On 24 August we held our community launch at St Philip’s Christian College, and the turnout from both adults and children was everything we hoped for. Port Stephens News Of The Area covered the evening.

Nobody is to blame

Founding member and psychologist Kate Preston opened with the idea that sits underneath everything we do: the movement exists precisely because no single parent, no school, and no part of the community is at fault for what has happened with children and screens. It is a shared problem, so it needs a shared response.

Why willpower isn’t the answer

Emma Stilinovic, psychologist at Strive Hive, presented the research on social media and the algorithms that keep children scrolling. Her central point was biological rather than moral: the part of the brain responsible for saying enough is not fully developed until around age 25.

Young brains don’t have brakes.

Emma Stilinovic, psychologist, Strive Hive

The presentation also covered what the data has shown since 2017 — a sharp rise in childhood anxiety and depression, alongside measurable declines in creativity, memory and time-management. Asking a child to simply exercise self-control against systems engineered by adults to be difficult to put down isn’t a fair contest.

What comes next

Board member Dale Hourihan spoke about building something that can be tailored to individual families rather than issuing one rigid rule for everyone. The emphasis is on real, unstructured, face-to-face time — without pressure or guilt.

  • Technology-free connect and play family days
  • Digital detox bootcamps
  • Community gatherings across Port Stephens
  • Encouraging schools to return to pen and paper learning
  • Encouraging schools to open their gates on weekends, giving children a safe space to be together

Delaying smartphones — and choosing a basic phone instead — remains one of the most effective steps a family can take. We know it isn’t easy when it feels like everyone else has one. That is exactly why doing it together matters.

Read the article

The full piece by Nico Lombardo is on the News Of The Area website: Unplugged: How parents and caretakers can protect kids from technology overload. All of our press coverage is collected on the In the News page.

Want to be part of it? Join us via Get Involved, or browse basic phones for kids in our shop — proceeds fund the movement.