Daisy Greenwell and Joe Ryrie were headed to Davos to talk about screen-free childhoods at the invitation of philanthropist Margarita Louis-Dreyfus when the dam broke.
Rumors reached the married couple during their drive along the M25 motorway that Keir Starmer’s government — facing both a potential backbench rebellion and an embarrassing defeat in the Lords — was preparing to make a major online safety-related announcement.
The husband and wife are the co-founders and directors of Smartphone Free Childhood, a charity advocating for delaying children’s access to smartphones and social media. At just two-and-a-half years old, the group has in the last six months influenced the direction of online safety policy in the U.K. perhaps more than any other.
More than a dozen of Smartphone Free Childhood’s regional leaders were given a front row seat in the Downing Street press room to watch then Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveil a raft of new restrictions on children’s access to social media. Civil society groups like the Molly Rose Foundation and NSPCC, key stakeholders in the development of the U.K.’s online safety regime who had expressed more skepticism about the idea of a ban, weren’t invited.
