It’s increasingly impossible to deny that smartphones are doing irreversible damage to children and childhood
thoroughly enjoyed my time as a secondary school teacher before taking a career break when my children were small. But a decade on, I don’t envy my former colleagues, many of whom face a constant battle in the classroom where they must compete with smartphones and social media for the attention of their students. Almost all secondary school pupils now own smartphones, yet it is increasingly clear that these devices are having a detrimental impact on the learning, relationships and overall health of our children.
So I warmly welcome the Education Secretary’s announcement that mobile phones should be banished from schools and the accompanying guidance as to how this might be achieved.
This guidance is not statutory but it will provide support for school leaders, many of whom already have policies in place to restrict phones. Some commentators claim that headteachers have all the tools they need, but we cannot underestimate how difficult it is to keep phones out of all classrooms. Children – often supported by their parents – are loath to part with phones that are not only seriously expensive but also highly addictive. I have heard of primary school children hiding their phones in their coats to avoid handing them in at the start of the school day, sneaking out to check for notifications at frequent intervals. In large secondary schools enforcing this policy will be a tall order. Headteachers need all the support they can get.
But while a six-hour break from this destructive dopamine dependence is a good start, it is not enough. Even if smartphones are never seen again in the classroom, the impact of social media use outside of school will still spill over into the playground. In a radio interview on Monday morning, West Midlands headteacher Peter Lee predicted that “most of the issues my pastoral teams will deal with this morning will stem from issues on social media outside of school.”
It’s increasingly impossible to deny that smartphones are doing irreversible damage to children and childhood. Since 2010, when smartphone and social media usage began to surge, incidences of anxiety, bullying, self-harm and suicide have risen. Political indoctrination – some might say brainwashing – is rife, with British children spending hours a day on TikTok, a platform whose sister app is highly restricted in China.
Perhaps most worrying of all, with the internet in their pockets children have unlimited access to violent pornography, and half of child sexual abuse is now committed by other children. A teacher recently told me how she caught some 11 year old boys watching hardcore pornography on their phones at the back of the classroom, having downloaded a VPN to escape the school’s internet filters.
The movement to prevent children from accessing smartphones and social media is gathering pace. Florida recently passed a law to ban under 16s from social media. Brianna Ghey’s courageous mother has called for similar legislation here in the UK. A grassroots campaign ‘Parents United for a Smartphone-Free Childhood’ went viral within days of its launch. Following my question to the Prime Minister on this issue, I’ve been inundated with support from parents across the country.
But there are many who object. Some say social media can have “benefits” for children, but I would challenge them to produce evidence for this claim (children reporting that they “like” it is not evidence). Some say the answer is to provide more mental health support. But this is just an (again unevidenced) attempt to close the stable door once the horse has bolted. Others complain that banning social media is a “nanny state” idea, yet in other areas of life we acknowledge that children are different from adults and should be protected by law. The argument is not whether there should be age limits on certain freedoms – this is a settled matter – but whether smartphones and social media meet the threshold of harm to require such an age limit. It is becoming increasingly impossible to deny that they do.
So I welcome this guidance. But smartphones and social media are not safe for children in school or at home and we act boldly to end this child protection scandal.
This article was first published in The Telegraph February 20
