Lifeguards Started Confiscating Parents' Phones On The Beach To Make Them Pay Attention To Their Children

Jul 18, 2019 by apost team

Södra Älvsborg's Rescue Service Association in Sweden released a quirky video on their Facebook page warning parents about the dangers of being on your cellphone while taking your children to the beach. Lifeguards in the video are shown confiscating parents cellphones so they can pay attention to their children. 

In the funny video, two lifeguards gear up to go out on the beach but before they can set step on the sand they make sure they’ve put sunscreen on themselves. Afterward, they walk on the beach to find a mom busy on her cellphone while her children are playing in the water. 

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The lifeguards walk up to the mom and confiscate her phone and then point at the children playing the water, she nods her head in agreement. They proceed to do this to several other parents who are paying attention to their cell phones instead of their children. The rescue service writes at the end of the video to “Let your mobile rest on the beach. Give bathing children your full attention this summer!” Although this seems like a playful PSA video, the consequences of being on your cellphone can be fatal. 

The German Lifeguard Association, the world’s largest, issued a warning last year to parents to put their cell phones away while their children are in the water. The association said Germany has experienced more children drowning due to parents being fixated on their cell phones. "Too few parents and grandparents are heeding the advice: When your children and grandchildren are in the water, put your smartphone away,'' German Lifeguard Association spokesman Achim Wiese told The Guardian. 

Mary Beth Moran, director for the Center for Healthier Communities at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego, told Today,

"A lot of parents don't realize that it only takes seconds for a child to submerge and potentially drown."

Watch the PSA for yourself below:

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