Digirauha in short
Digirauha ry (”The Digital Peace Association”) is a registered association, ”yhdistys”, founded in September 2024 by five concerned parents with the mission of bringing families and professionals together to challenge the dominant smartphone and social media culture in Finland.
Our goal is to advocate for safer, healthier, and happier lives for children and young people. While we acknowledge the many benefits of digital devices, we aim to address the risks associated with the content young people encounter online, and to change the ways we all consume digital content. We believe in a brighter future and are committed to promoting smarter digital habits that foster well-being in the digital age.
How can we make a difference?
- We share news and latest global and local research, and participate in events and public discussions where such themes arise.
- We support parents and other groups and communities in organising forums to discuss changing digital habits and delaying smartphone use.
- We launched a petition (available in Finnish only) to ask the Finnish government to review current legislation and to propose concrete actions to protect our children and young people from harmful content, addiction and other risks associated with smartphone use.
I moved (back) to Finland with my primary school-aged children from the UK, where smart devices were not more widely used by young people until in secondary school. Although Finnish children’s digital behaviour and the young age that they were being introduced to phones worried us as parents, we went ahead and bought a smartphone for our 10-year-old. After all, we wanted him to adapt to his new home country and its social customs. Looking back, we are regretting it: although we have been fairly strict with his phone use, it feels like every free moment has to be filled with some phone-free, organised activity to prevent the digital world competing with our preteen’s attention. It feels like here, more than in e.g. the UK, many children don’t actually know how to talk to each other, or to adults, or to be together without a digital ”security blanket”which makes it easy to escape from live situations and interactions. I do hope Digirauha will contribute to a sense of collective power, support, and a shared will for cultural change that is challenging the cynical commercial interests of tech giants.
(Anu, one of the founders)
For more information on how you can take part, please contact:
Anu Liisanantti:
tel: 045-1561067
To join Smartphone-Free Childhood Finland WhatsApp group for parents and guardians (communications in Finnish and in English), please click here
For more English-language resources and international campaigns, please visit:
https://smartphonefreechildhood.co.uk/