“AS PARENTS WE ARE POWERFUL, ESPECIALLY IF WE STAND TOGETHER”
Our Vision
Our vision is help parents and young people to have a healthier, happier relationship with their devices. We aim to support parents to consider:
Delaying (where possible in younger adolescents) the first smartphone.
Encouraging waiting for age appropriate social media and video games.
Establishing good tech boundaries and safe use of the internet.
Helping young people get a healthy balance with their devices.
The Problem
“Mental health and well-being is fast emerging as the single biggest public health issue affecting young people today, both here in the UK and globally.”
“16-24 year old’s are the loneliest group in society.”
“According to the Office of National statistics 12% 0f children have a mental health problem, this more than doubles to 27% for children spending more than three hours a day on social media.”
Our solution
We cannot deny that we live in a technological world and the huge potential opportunities this brings. However, we cannot afford to ignore the risk this poses on young, vulnerable minds.
We have a window of opportunity to do something differently for our children.
We want to empower parents and children to make informed, positive choices regarding their use of technology. The number one reason we hear for parents giving young adolescents unrestricted access to smart phones and social media is that they don't want them to be left out socially.
However, we aim through PAPAYA to help bring groups of parents and children together to make positive, proactive choices regarding unrestricted smart phone use and social media.
We invite you to re-evaluate your view on technology in childhood and consider starting this important conversation as a family and as a community.
The idea is simple; that as parents within a school community we stand together and come up with solutions to help reduce phone addiction in our children.
Join PAPAYA today and help enable our children to thrive in a digital age.
Our Team
We are three parents who care deeply about the impact the use of technology is having on the mental health and wellbeing of children today
Dr Susanna Davies is a GP with a special interest in mental health in adolescents. She is married to Hugh and they have three school children (15, 14, and 11). She is the founder of PAPAYA and is passionate about turning the tide of mental health outcomes for adolescents today.
“I decided to set up PAPAYA as I have seen a dramatic increase in the mental health problems in young adults over the past 5 years. It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that these are the first generation of young people to grow up with smart phones and social media. I can’t help but project on ten years to when my children are in their early twenties and wonder if their generation are likely to have the same complexity of mental health problems unless something significant changes.”
Alice Bond is the pastor of Hope Chapel, Bristol and founder of Biblios. She has three adolescent children and understands the difficult journey of successfully navigating parenting in the digital age.
As a mother of a teenage daughter and two sons she is passionate about helping young people get a healthy balance with tech. She has been involved with PAPAYA since it’s launch in 2018 and is excited to be joining the trustee team in November 2023.
Joe Watson is the creative director of a company that creates media for international students. With a passion to see people equipped and set-up to succeed Joe has found a career that she hopes will have a profound impact on students as they transition to new countries.
Joe has also set up and co run a charity in Uganda, has run multiple fundraising events and is a keen advocate of introducing healthy habits to children around social media and screen time.