Imagine a coastal town where nearly every child walks to school without a phone buzzing in their pocket. No TikTok, Instagram, or late-night scrolling under the covers. That’s reality in Greystones, Ireland, a community of about 20,000 people nestled between the Irish Sea and the Wicklow Mountains. Here, parents made a bold pact: no smartphones for their children until middle school. Three years in, their experiment is making waves far beyond Ireland’s shores.

The idea began at St. Patrick’s Primary School, where principal Rachel Harper noticed something troubling. “I could see that in children coming in the morning—a hesitation and just nerves,” she recalls. Anxiety among very young children wasn’t surprising, but Harper saw it growing among older students too. Concerned, she surveyed pa

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