Meet Tue from the parent council of a 4th grade class

Tue is the father of a boy who’s now in 5th grade. When his son was in 4th grade, and most kids had a phone, the conversation started in the class.

“That’s when it started coming up that the kids wanted to start a class chat, and some began talking about Snapchat and WhatsApp,” Tue says.

He had installed Snapchat himself at one point just to see what it was. His eldest daughter was already on Snapchat and had been on the platform for a few years by then.

“It was like walking through the door to an annoying party: blinking, noisy and in your face the whole time. That confirmed for me that we had to make an effort to find another solution,” Tue says.

So he started looking for alternatives and found Oase. He first tried it out with a couple of other parents who shared his concerns about Snapchat. Tue was part of the class’s parent council, and after a short trial period they were ready to present Oase to the rest of the parents.

“I’d say we partly succeeded in winning the parents over the first time around,” says Tue.

Some were enthusiastic about a healthier digital alternative for the class, other parents said nothing. But no one was outright against letting the kids try Oase.

“So that’s basically how it became tacit consent.”

From some, the reaction was: I can’t handle yet another app on my phone. Well, put a bit bluntly: guess why? Because your phone is already bombarding you with input and notifications. It’s about turning the volume down, and that’s actually where Oase helps.

Tue believes the timing, relative to the kids’ age, was a big part of why it worked at all.

“I think it was necessary to bring up the idea of Oase as a class chat in 4th grade. The kids were still young enough that we as parents could show up and shape the decision: ‘we think you should try Oase — let’s figure it out together.’”

So how did the kids actually get started on Oase?

Three or four parents arranged to meet at school one afternoon after class, together with the kids.

“We’d packed biscuits and brought juice. And we’d already set up an oase, ready to go.”

The parents explained how they imagined it could work. Then the kids got started signing up and helping each other. Within about an hour, everyone had signed up and they’d written four or five rules for how the chat should be used — among them, not messaging each other during the group’s “quiet hours” between 8pm and 6am, and using your real name and profile picture.

Only two kids in the class didn’t join from the start, and no big deal was made of it. It’s voluntary, and they can join whenever they want. A couple of parents act as helper admins in the class chat and can step in if something gets out of hand. They’ve never actually had to, though.

What the kids write about is often: “Does anyone want to go play football? Or head to the local sports hall for badminton? Anyone up for the beach and a swim?” Sometimes there are also invitations to play online together. But mostly the chat is used to meet up and plan activities for the class. Most of it really falls into the category “Should we meet up in person and do something together?”

“A strong recommendation for Oase as a class chat. The next step is getting the parents in the class to do something similar,” says Tue.