A New Dawn in Denmark

Denmark’s ownership of self-governed Greenland has been topping the news lately; less known is its success at building a political coalition to better protect and prepare its children.

Last November, liberal and conservative Danish lawmakers agreed to draft legislation to ban social media for kids under 15. Separately, they also decided to ban cell phones in schools starting in the 2026-2027 school year.

One interesting provision of the bipartisan agreement is the promotion of physical social communities. True social interactions in the physical space are the antidote to online social distancing. At Raising Human, we want to work on physical social communities, too. It is what kids crave online without knowing what to ask for.

Denmark holds a special place in my heart. When we released the award-winning documentary film KidsOnTech in 2021, we got a call from a Danish newspaper. They asked if we could make the film available for free to all their readers. We made it happen. Two years later, they called back. We did it again. Each time, the releases coincided with back-to-school, when parents were more focused on schools and kids. One of the goals of the film was to empower parents and teachers and foster discussions. I like to think that, by raising awareness and sparking conversations, KidsOnTech was a seed that helped make about 1 million kids better off. Like Lego constructions - another invention from Denmark - we build this one brick at a time.

References:

KidsOnTech (Youtube, 30 minutes, 2021, re-released 2025) Director - Paul Zehrer