Sorcha Newby

Sorcha Newby is a psychology lecturer and a PhD researcher specialising in the psychological impact of social media on children's well-being. Her research focuses on how emotional engagement with platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat influences anxiety, sleep quality, and cognitive development in pre-adolescents. She is also a mother of two young children, which brings a personal perspective to her work on digital wellbeing and the everyday realities of raising children in a hyperconnected world. Sorcha’s academic work is grounded in empirical research and informed by her teaching practice. She has co-authored scholarly work in collaboration with the University of Cambridge and De Montfort University and is currently based at Arden University and DMU, where she contributes to the field of digital wellbeing and child development. As a speaker, Sorcha brings clarity and nuance to complex issues at the intersection of technology and mental health. Her work supports educators, parents, policymakers, and mental health professionals in understanding the subtle yet significant ways in which digital platforms are shaping the minds and well-being of the next generation. Workshops 1-Digital Sleep Champions: A Student-Led Campaign to Shrink Night-Time Screen Stress Duration - 3 hours  Takeaways:Teachers and students leave with a clear, data-driven picture of how late-night social-media use is impairing pre-teen sleep and next-day learning. Draft Behaviour-Change Campaign Plan Agreed success metrics (e.g., percentage of pupils logging off by 9 p.m., average sleep latency) to demonstrate impact to governors, Ofsted and parents. 2-Family Digital Resilience Lab: Turning FOMO into JOMO Duration - 3 hours Takeaways: Personalised Digital-Wellbeing Snapshot Parents and pre-teens leave with an individual Emotional-Investment Score that pinpoints which apps, times of day and feelings trigger the most anxiety and lost sleep—plus a simple tracker to monitor progress at home. Conversation & Boundary Toolkit Families practise two evidence-based scripts (“Pause-Reflect-Reconnect” and “Buffer-Bedtime”) and receive a laminated cheat-sheet of calm, non-judgemental phrases to replace nightly stand-offs over devices. Signed Family Digital Pact Each household walks out with a co-created agreement—cut-off times, device-parking zone, weekend bonus-hour rules and review date—giving everyone clarity, shared ownership and a concrete starting point for healthier screen habits. 3-Emotion-Aware Design Sprint for Social Media Platforms Duration - 3 hours Takeaways: New Well-Being KPI Pack Product teams leave with a plug-and-play metrics bundle—Emotional Investment Score (EIS), Night-Time Engagement %, Micro-Alert Density—and a sample dashboard layout that can replace “time-on-app” in the next analytics sprint. Prototype Safeguard Features Each team walks out with three low-fidelity wireframes (e.g., “Bedtime Mode,” reflective scroll break, streak-free reward loop) that demonstrably lower anxiety without tanking retention—and are ready for user-testing hand-off. Regulator-Ready Compliance Checklist A concise mapping of those prototypes to the UK Children’s Code, upcoming EU child-safety regs and app-store policies, plus a one-page action memo that Trust & Safety and Legal can take straight into roadmap planning. ______________________________________________________________ Workshops duration can be altered to fit client needs, also can incorporate specific topic concerns that the client may want to address.