“But everyone else has one!”

This refers to a child’s desire – often expressed very urgently to their parents – to finally get their own smartphone. It is not easy to stand firm in such situations. “I don’t want my child to be an outsider” is a frequently heard argument – and sometimes also an excuse to avoid what may to become a difficult discussion. But who hasn’t seen the images of children and teenagers sitting side by side, hunched over their black boxes?

by Eliane Perret

Driven by the fear of missing out? FOMO (fear of missing out), as it is known in technical jargon! A feeling that is deliberately evoked by the structure of social media.1 But the question remains: how do we protect our children and young people from slipping into a digital world associated with psychologically harmful content, psychiatric symptoms and addictive behaviour? Parents are therefore called upon to tackle the task and protect their children and young people from the pitfalls and dangers of digital media.2 However, it would be easy to join forces, as many parents want to keep their children and young people away from undesirable content on the internet and (mostly) anti-social media, but feel that they are alone in this.

Goal 14+

Some families from the municipality Sorengo in our southern canton Ticino are leading the way. They have joined forces in the “Obiettivo 14+” association.3 “Obiettivo 14+” started with a few courageous fathers and mothers. Today, the association has over 30 members from Lugano area – and more than fifty children are benefiting from it. No, no, these are by no means technophobic parents who want their children to still communicate with a tin can telephone, but rather they want to instil in their offspring a sense of JOMO (joy of missing out), namely the joy of not having to be part of it.
The name of their association means Goal 14+ in English. Membership is linked to a “Patto digitale”, a digital pact in which parents undertake not to provide their child with any personal digital devices connected to the internet until they reach the age of 14. This includes smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, game consoles, PCs (and all other devices that can connect to the internet). Personal means that the device was purchased for the child or is freely available to them – and that should not be the case. To enable telephone communication between parents and children, a newly produced “dumbphone” in the style of an old Nokia device is recommended, the use of which is limited to phone calls and sending text messages. A personal account on (un)social media is only permitted from the age of 16 on.

A careful introduction to the digital world

The “Patto digitale” can be found on the association’s website.4 Parents can use it – with slight variations, but essentially unchanged – for their family’s needs. It provides them with carefully thought-out and helpful guidelines on how to organise their family life in today’s technology-obsessed world. Parents are encouraged to participate in their children’s digital world. Parents’ devices or a shared PC or laptop are available in commonly accessible places such as the living room and kitchen. The rules, which are transparent to everyone, include fixed times and a precisely defined limited period of use. This gives children an insight into the advantages of the internet when searching for information, while at the same time teaching them to use devices consciously and responsibly. To prevent access to inappropriate content, special filters or blocks may need to be installed. The obligation to participate in the training offered as part of the membership makes it easier for parents to stick to their guns and stay on task.

Why no urgency?

It is easy to see that such regulated use of digital devices places demands on parents in many ways. Not only do they have to withstand what may be intense pressure from their children, but they also have to familiarise themselves with the technical aspects of responsible internet use. Not all parents are able to do this. This makes it all the more important for the federal government to introduce legal regulations and protective measures, as other countries have already done. It is astonishing that the Federal Council sees no real need for action in response to the postulates of National Councillor Maya Graf, Councillor of States Céline Vara and the motion of National Councillor Regina Durrer-Knobel.5 This raises the question: Why is the urgency of protecting our younger generation and the duty to support parents not recognised? Who has an interest in a disoriented and internally neglected youth?

Perhaps a tin can telephone after all?

In the meantime, parents have to help themselves, like those in Sorengo or those who have joined the Smartphone-Free Childhood association6. They can find many answers to pressing questions on the relevant websites. Here is one advantage of the internet: The answers on the Obiettivo 14+ website, which are written in Italian, can be translated into the desired language with a click using translation programmes. This makes it easier for parents to enjoy themselves with their children on the football pitch, build huts in the woods or have fun playing board games together in a warm living room in winter – a trip to the analogue world, where even a tin can telephone has its place. •

https://www.zeit-fragen.ch/en/archives/2025/nr-22-14-oktober-2025/aber-alle-haben-eines

===================

“Süsses oder Saures!” “Des bonbons ou un sort!” Thirty years ago, most Swiss wouldn’t have had a clue what was going on if they had opened their front door to find a couple of eight-year-olds, high on sugar and dressed as witches or skeletons, shrieking “trick or treat!”.

Since the mid-1990s, Halloween has embedded itself, albeit weakly, in Swiss cultural life. “Like Oktoberfests, which now also intoxicate town and country in Switzerland,” wrote the St. Galler TagblattExternal link, referring to German beer festivals.

“Cultural pessimists see domestic customs threatened,” it continued. “And evangelical Christians in particular reject Halloween because it’s about occultism and Satanism – regardless of the fact that the event has long since ceased to have any serious religious traits and is largely commercialised. Folklorists rather than theologians are responsible for Halloween, and marketing experts and event organisers for its spread in our country.”

The tradition crept into French-speaking Switzerland from France, and then into German-speaking Switzerland, according to folklorist Konrad Kuhn, who confirmed that Halloween wasn’t an issue in Switzerland before the mid-1990s.

It took a few years for the larger retailers and the media to get interested, but what really gave Halloween a boost in Switzerland was farmers’ discovery, at the same time, of the pumpkin as a new source of income, Kuhn wrote in Kürbis, Kommerz und KultExternal link: Halloween und Kürbisfest zwischen Gegenwartsbrauch und Marketing (Pumpkin, commerce and cult: Halloween and the pumpkin festival between contemporary custom and marketing), published in “Folklore Suisse” in 2010.

A pioneering role was played by the publicity-savvy Jucker brothers in canton Zurich, whose farm soon became known throughout Switzerland for pumping out pumpkins and holding events such as competitions for the biggest pumpkin pyramid, the biggest pumpkin soup, the heaviest pumpkin and so on. The media lapped this up, and countless farmers followed their example and flooded Switzerland with pumpkins, which until then had been eaten sparingly but which now filled home kitchens and restaurants.

In 1991, 230 tonnes of pumpkins were sold in Switzerland. By 2000, it was around 10,000 tonnes, according to this SWI swissinfo.ch article from 2001.

“The Juckers took advantage of the traditional November gap in the event sector, so that in addition to the major retailers, amusement parks, catering establishments and costume shops also showed interest and achieved high sales,” Kuhn said.

However, it appears that Halloween then took a slight hit. Halloween sales at the country’s two biggest supermarkets, Migros and Coop, plummeted in 2007.

At the same time, media coverage of Halloween changed, Kuhn said. “While earlier there had been favourable reports and Halloween had even made it onto daytime television, now the focus was mainly on the damage to property committed during the night by prowling youths”.

In 2021, Lausanne newspaper Le MatinExternal link said the police were well aware that little monsters for one evening can really be just that: little monsters.

“In recent years, more and more people have had the unpleasant surprise of finding eggs thrown at the front of their house or windows,” it said. “While the threat of ‘trick or treat’ is supposed to be no more than a threat, some children really do take revenge on those who don’t give them anything or open the door for them.”

The police pointed out that participation in Halloween “is not compulsory” and that refusal shouldn’t lead to reprisals, “however harmless they may seem”.

Today, October 31 means Swiss department stores offering “Halloween deals”, restaurants still throwing pumpkin into everything, and cinemas showing classic horror films.

“Playing with spooky things is catching on in ever wider circles,” reckoned the St. Galler TagblattExternal link on Tuesday. “Many people have fun with it, organising Halloween parties where they walk through the living room dressed up as zombies with a glass of blood-coloured liquid and dip tortilla chips into guacamole ‘vomited up’ from a pumpkin.”

While Halloween in Switzerland is still far from the massive national celebration it is in the United States, those Swiss who celebrate it really go for it, with adults seemingly trying to outdo each other with impressively gory make-up.

Costumes in the US are generally more humorous or satirical, but the Swiss have a chance to do satire during the carnival season. It should also be pointed out that the Swiss are no strangers to eyebrow-raising customs, such as decapitating a dead goose or holding down young girls and putting blackface on them:

And as Kuhn noted, elements of Halloween can be found in other customs that are widespread in Switzerland, such as the carved turnip with a candle as in the Räbeliechtli procession, asking for something at the front door as in carol singing, or the elements of commemorating the dead on All Saints’ Day.

As for whether Halloween is gaining or losing popularity in Switzerland, it’s hard to say. Some neighbourhoods put on well-organised parties for adults and are teeming with skeletons and witches. Social media enables parents to create maps of which houses are tricking or treating. Other streets are dead.

But Kuhn was confident that the tradition would continue in some form. “The need for a yearly cycle shaped by highlights continues, so it can be assumed that Halloween […] will be innovatively integrated into the existing customs landscape”.

The pumpkin, he added, also seems to have found its place beyond Halloween parties by being carved as a family and then put on display: “a family custom during the dark season”.

This article was originally published on October 31, 2023.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/culture/how-halloween-became-part-of-swiss-culture/48939508

==================

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.