Below is a column I wrote for last week’s edition of the Forest Journal
I am thankful, that my childhood was ‘screen-free’ and ‘phone-free’ (though it was always worth trying every telephone box to press button B and see if tuppence was to be had).
Equally, I am thankful that my own children grew up before smartphones became available. Parents are now badgered by their children to get them one at an ever-younger ages. I understand that they are now by far the biggest strain of modern parenthood: trying to understand the technology, monitoring it, nagging, negotiating and fighting about it.
Of course they have their uses, not least the reassurance that you can maintain contact with your children and know where they are. Beyond that however, they open the door to far too many dangers.
The National Crime Agency has issued an unprecedented alert to schools, after cases of “sextortion” increased eight-fold (this is blackmail where criminals, posing as teenagers, make contact with real children online).
Apart from enabling these approaches from sexual predators, smartphones expose children to inappropriate and extreme content: Seeing hardcore pornography, extreme violence, cyberbullying, self-harm and anorexia content are now all too commonplace occurrences for young people.
Smartphones and the apps that they support are intentionally designed to be highly addictive. According to the regulator Ofcom ‘many children are spending six and even eight hours a day on social media – sometimes even more’, instead of playing and interacting in the real world with friends. Little wonder then, that teachers say that children find it increasingly difficult to concentrate, that they are often anxious, and that so many are lacking in self-esteem.
Certainly, the Online safety Act is a good start with its very large fines for the media giants when they break the law.
Also, The Department for Education has published new guidance which backs head teachers in banning mobile phone use throughout the school day, including at break times, to tackle disruptive behaviour and online bullying.
The new guidance says that schools should prohibit the use of mobile phones, but they will have a free hand on how to do this. Schools will be supported to prohibit mobile phone use with examples of different approaches including banning phones from the school premises, handing in phones on arrival at school, and keeping phones securely locked away at school.
Frankly, the smartphone has abolished normal childhood and polls say that 60% of parents want them banned for under-sixteens. The Government has now launched a consultation on this. I’m for going further and I would consider banning access to social media until adulthood.