The negative effects of smartphones on children extend far beyond their impact on educational attainment.
Eton College has announced that new pupils starting in September will be prohibited from bringing smartphones to school. This is a wise move; research suggests that children in schools with effective phone-bans achieve greater academic success.
The ability of private schools to act as educational trail blazers is one of the strongest arguments for their existence. If Eton’s smartphone ban results in improved pupil performance, we can assume that many state schools will follow suit.
But the negative effects of smartphones on children extend far beyond their impact on educational attainment. Across almost every conceivable measure, the experience of childhood has worsened in recent years. Data from across the Western world shows sharp increases in child suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, porn addiction, loneliness and sexual exploitation.
All of these trends can be traced back to the introduction of the front-facing camera iPhone in 2010 and the explosion of social media use from 2014.
This phone-based childhood exposes children to unimaginable harms. Social media and gaming algorithms drive powerful addictions, and camera smartphones allow predators to groom and abuse children even when they are apparently safe in their own homes. Even for children who do not encounter harmful content, smartphones act as “experience blockers” that rob them of vital “real world” physical and relational experiences that their brains and bodies need to mature.
For the first time since records began, human IQ may be falling. The consequences for society of a whole generation whose intellectual curiosity has been numbed by screen addiction hardly need spelling out.
It is not in children’s best interests to be allowed access to smartphones and social media. Although the departing Conservative government was rumoured to be considering an outright ban, Labour’s manifesto made no mention of the issue.
Left-wing politicians seem content to blame the crisis of childhood on “austerity”, despite the evidence that children in all Western countries have experienced the same decline since 2010, regardless of who has been in power.
Sadly, the welfare of children seems to be an afterthought in modern British politics. The prevailing political philosophy of our time – that of liberal individualism – prioritises adult rights and convenience over the needs of children to be protected and nurtured. Lockdowns, childcare policy and a complete silence on our epidemic of family breakdown all demonstrate that, for the political class at least, adult autonomy trumps children’s security.
The same mistake is being made over access to smartphones. This is not an issue of freedoms or rights but one of child protection. Just as we protect children by prohibiting them from smoking, drinking, and having sex, we have a moral duty to protect them from the proven harms of smartphones and social media.
When it comes to child safeguarding, it is not good enough to revert to tired cliches such as “the genie’s out of the bottle”.
Eton should be congratulated on its bold new policy. But all children need protecting from smartphones, social media and the online wild west, not just a privileged few.
First published in the Telegraph | July 8
