If you’re reading this and you’ve got kids or you work with kids then I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.
The amount of time children are spending on smartphones and the apps they’re spending that time on are causing them harm. And not just harm in the obvious ways like to their mental health, but also to their sleep, attention spans, learning and performance in school. The worst part is, the most vulnerable kids are the most affected.
Before I became an MP I was a teacher and then I worked with vulnerable children in the social care system, so I’ve seen firsthand the impact smartphones and social media have had. Parents, teachers and health professionals have known this to be true for a while and now there is a growing body of data and evidence to back it up.
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Laurie Noble Photography)
The average 12-year-old spends 21 hours a week on their phone. And they’re spending that time doom scrolling on social media apps that are designed to be addictive, holding their attention for hours on end. A quarter of children are using their phones in a way that demonstrates addictive behaviour.
When we learn that something causes harm, we regulate it and seek to reduce that harm. We did it with cars when people started crashing them by making seat belts mandatory. We need the equivalent of the “seat belt” legislation for smartphone use for children.
We’re already behind the game on this. Countries around the world are taking action and we need to catch up. Polling shows that parents want action. Teachers want action. Medical professionals want action. It’s time for politicians to take action.
My Bill proposes a series of sensible, practical measures to empower parents and schools to reduce smartphone use for children under the age of 16 and toughen up regulation so that big tech companies are forced to produce apps that are safe for children to use and not addictive by design.
Adults find it hard enough to manage screen time, so why are we expecting children to manage this addictive content without some shared rules? It’s just common sense.
I look forward to laying out the case for the Safer Phones Bill in the weeks and months ahead and hope to convince colleagues from across the House to back my Bill. I’d urge Mirror readers to write to their MPs to encourage them to get on board.