Smartphone Free Childhood event

Tindle News

To ensure concerns are represented in Parliament and to discuss how we can better support families, schools and clinicians, Gregory Stafford MP has convened a local panel event to explore how public policy can help tackle the growing challenge of smartphone dependency among young people. Increasing evidence shows that smartphone use among children and young people poses serious risks to their mental and physical health. Children using smartphones for five or more hours a day were found to be 71% more likely to display at least one risk factor associated with suicide. Panellists include: Gregory Stafford MP, Member of Parliament for Farnham and Bordon  Alex Rennie, Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire  Dr Louise Milne, Consultant Paediatrician  Sarah Oliver, Headteacher, Rowledge CofE Primary School  Nancy Stuart-Bruges, Regional Co-ordinator, Smartphone Free Childhood

Transcript

00:00But also, and one of the reasons why I actually pulled this together was a growing number

00:13of constituents who were writing to me about this issue, concerned one about what they

00:20could do as parents and the support that they were either having or not having, from teachers

00:26and headteachers about what they should be doing, and indeed what we, I think we generally

00:33politicians could or should be doing at a national level to try and make this easier.

00:38So a bit of a background first, so this is our norm at the moment in society, I think

00:42anyone is particularly surprised by this statistic, I think if you look at your eyes and look

00:45around, you can notice 82% of the 10-12 year olds have their own smartphone. What's really

00:51upsetting me, and statistics they're getting worse, is that 30% of 67 year olds own their

00:58own smartphone. And we can talk about what impact that's having in a bit. For the children,

01:0411 to 16 year olds, they pick up their phone 500 times a day. And 500 times a day they've

01:09been called back to that device, 237 notifications is the average, we think these are both conservative

01:14estimates, it's probably much higher than that. And the average child girl spends 29 hours of

01:20week on a smartphone experience, you know, I've been headteacher now for 10 years in this

01:25lovely school. The children aren't able to attend in the way they used to be able to,

01:30their attention is much lower, their anxiety is increasing, and their ability to regulate

01:35has decreased. Lots of reasons, but I truly believe, and I think what Louise says is compelling,

01:42I've done lots of reading myself, that this is impacting our children. Our children are already

01:47addicted to phones before they have one, and they see it as the route to all happiness,

01:53because we are showing them that our phones from when they are little sitting at the dinner table.

01:58And so their dopamine is being hit from that moment on, they should not be having access

02:03to smartphones. And you can hear that I'm very passionate about it, I've really seen the impact.

02:08We do safety for our children, as all schools do, constantly, we talk about safety, we talk about

02:15being safe online if you have got a phone. And yet still in my school, I recently had a situation

02:21where a year six boy was persuaded almost, luckily it didn't happen to break his own toes

02:27by a groom or online, because he was in his bedroom. A wonderful family who gave their child

02:33all the right messages, but he was on his phone on his own in his bedroom. And he made a friend

02:38who would like him to break his toes. So it can happen, it's happening everywhere,

02:42and I think that is what we need to be really considering.

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