Further to my article in last week’s Forest Journal regarding the pernicious danger of smartphones. I can express my satisfaction at the removal of another intrusion to deny children their childhood: the removal of aspects sex education until year 9 (typically 12 to 13 years-old) and the complete exclusion of transgender ideology.
Of course, as a former teacher, I have some reservations about government telling teachers what to teach, when to teach it, and how to teach it. Nevertheless, some members of the profession had clearly taken leave of their senses, evidenced by the inclusion of inappropriate material, often provided a considerable expense to schools, from third parties with an ‘axe to grind’, and in many cases, an unwillingness to be transparent about that content with parents.
But let me return to the question of children and smartphones, which was debated at Westminster last week, and quote from my colleague, Miriam Cates MP’s speech last week:
“In this country, we often take the physical safety of our children for granted, but imagine if our streets were so lawless that it was unsafe for children to leave their homes. Imagine if, on their daily walk to school, our children had to witness the beheading of strangers or the violent rape of women and girls. Imagine if, when hanging out in the local park, it was normal for hundreds of people to accost our child and encourage them to take their own life. Imagine if it was a daily occurrence for our children to be propositioned for sex or blackmailed into stripping for strangers. Imagine if every mistake that our child made was advertised on public billboards, so that everyone could laugh and mock until the shame made life not worth living. This is not a horror movie or some imaginary wild west; this is the digital world that our children occupy, often for hours a day.”
The point is well made. The consequences are dreadful. I am besieged with requests from desperate parents seeking assistance in securing mental health interventions for their children. Suicide rates for teenage boys in the UK have doubled. They have trebled for girls. Incidents of self-harm for 10 to 12-year-old girls have increased by 364%. Anxiety rates for the under-25s have trebled. Feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness, loneliness and despair are growing among our youngest citizens. In just 15 years, childhood has been abolished.
The evidence and research points to smartphones and social media as the culprits. They have become an addiction throughout the developed world. This is hardly surprising given that the suppliers design applications with the intention of making them addictive.
It is significant that TikTok, one of most popular social media amongst children, severely restricts Children’s screen time in its native China, but unlimited in its ability to undermine them in the free world.
My prejudice has always been to resist interfering with the freedoms and personal choices of the people who elect me. Nevertheless, I do not think we can simply stand aside as we witness the creation of an ‘anxious generation’ whose confidence has been so undermined by hours and hours of often harmful screen time and starved of real social interaction with peers. It is our duty to protect our children.
The Online Harms Act is a start, but we now need to proceed much further and faster to to restrict access by age and content.