It’s just over six months ago that the single-shot TV series Adolescence offered a window into the lives of today’s teens, raising urgent questions with many parents around smartphone use and the boundaries between the digital and real world. Joanna Lewis speaks with tech expert Shona Beats and behavioural science specialist Professor David A. Ellis from the University of Bath.…
According to the nation-wide community Smartphone Free Childhood, 75% of 15-years-olds with a smartphone have seen a beheading; 51% of children aged 11 to 13 have seen pornography; 90% of girls have been sent unsolicited explicit content, and teens who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety or depression – these are stats that cut through the noise.
Shona is working to educate local parents and schools on the dangers of unmanaged smartphone use. She says when you put a smartphone in a child’s hand, quite simply you are giving them an open door to the world, with access to unfiltered, and often harmful, content. It’s scary stuff, especially when you consider 89% of 12-year-olds own a smartphone, according to an Ofcom report.
The former COO of the mental health app Headspace and a tech specialist who worked in Silicon Valley, US, Shona boasts a deep understanding of how apps are built to be addictive, serving up scroll-stopping content purposefully designed to keep users engaged.
“I liken it to the 1970s, when food companies developed the ‘bliss point’ – a scientifically engineered combination of salt, sugar, and fat designed to create addiction, that we now know affects physical health,” Shona says.
“Technology is the same, it’s designed to be addictive, and we now know that it negatively affects mental health.” She adds that the effect of technology on the brain can be more detrimental than the effect of unhealthy food on the body, for example leading to normalisation of violence among young people.
“Just one of the many issues with technology for children is unfettered access to problematic content,” Shona explains, adding that current parental controls are insufficient and easily bypassed by tech-savvy children.
“Today’s digital content, unlike media from previous eras, is largely unfiltered, and contemporary ratings have largely gone out of the window. For example, The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) works to help families choose suitable content; young children can’t just go into a cinema and watch a movie rated 18 due to its violent content, but put a smartphone in a child’s hand and it’s easily accessible. It’s so hard to monitor and police, and sadly, the tech companies are way off the mark right now with managing this, so 18 content regularly gets seen by children,” Shona says, adding that children often don’t have a choice as to what content they see, with unsuitable videos or photos showing up on feeds or being shared via messaging channels like WhatsApp.
“Once a child has seen unsuitable content the trauma response has happened, and you’ve also slightly normalised it. Their friends think it’s funny and now they are going, yes, I think I need to find this funny too.”
Smartphone Free Childhood
Shona initially became involved following a group questionnaire around smartphone use that was sent out to parents at her children’s junior school. It quickly gained momentum amongst parents and flagged the concerns many were having.
She connected with Smartphone Free Childhood, a nation-wide grassroots movement based on the principle that childhood’s too short to be spent on a smartphone, going on to establish the Bath-based community.
Hundreds of parents have signed up to the Bath Smartphone Free Childhood WhatsApp group, with dedicated groups across more than 50 of the city’s schools, including junior and senior schools in the state and independent sector. To date, almost 1,000 parents in Bath have signed the Parent Pact – a promise parents make to delay getting their child a smartphone until at least 14, and social media until 16 – joining the more than 154,000 parents across the UK. It’s also gained the support of figures like Adolescence writer Jack Thorne, actor Benedict Cumberbatch, TV personality Joe Wicks, and singer-songwriter Paloma Faith.
Since then, Shona has taken her goal of educating parents and schools a step further, connecting with local educational establishments and academy trusts to arm them with the knowledge to shape policies around smartphone use. She says that schools in Bath are increasingly concerned and leaning towards addressing the issue of children’s technology. However, she cautions that schools are really only a small part of the solution, as it’s also about access to smartphones beyond the school gates.
“Educating parents about the realities of technology and its impact is crucial as many parents are unaware that their children’s online experiences differ significantly from their own,” Shona says.
And are there parents who push back?
“Yes, the main reason parents might push back primarily stems from anxiety about staying in touch with and tracking their children,” says Shona. “But children don’t need a smartphone to stay in touch. A regular phone that can make calls and send text messages is all that is needed.”
She adds that another argument is that children need to learn how to use technology, but as Shona explains, apps are designed to be super easy and intuitive to use. “Giving your child a smartphone is not going to teach them to code or work in technology.”
Her advice is simple: “Don’t leave them with access on their own to the internet for long periods of time until they are 14, and avoid social media if possible until 16. Unless you feel comfortable with the risk that they may a) get directly contacted by strangers, or b) see content that would be rated 18, or even banned by the BBFC, then be mindful about their access, it’s as simple as that.”
Understanding how people use technology
So, why aren’t there any controls in place around smartphone use and children in the UK?
Professor David A. Ellis holds a personal chair in behavioural science at the University of Bath’s School of Management. He’s working on a new government-commissioned research project in collaboration with other leading UK universities, which will lay the groundwork for future studies into the impact on children of smartphone and social media use to help direct future government action.
“We already know a lot about what impacts a child’s development: being well fed, having a family that loves them, being supported to manage the pressures of being a teenager, those have nothing to do with smartphones,” David says. “Future research should help us understand where smartphones genuinely pose risks versus where they’re being scapegoated for broader societal issues, so we can direct resources where they’ll actually make a difference.”
To date, almost 1,000 parents in Bath have signed the Parent Pact – a promise parents make to delay getting their child a smartphone until at least 14, and social media until 16
While some countries are restricting access to social media platforms for minors (Denmark, for example, recently announced it will ban social media access to under 15s) or implementing policies to ban phones in schools (Sweden is the latest country to announce a nationwide phone ban in all schools), David points to the fact that there is little evidence to suggest how these policies will work or positively impact the population at large.
“The UK’s own attempt to limit access to adult websites has not been especially effective. Even if they are effective, blanket bans may also prevent us from understanding and addressing the real issues; they’re a blunt instrument when what we need is nuanced, evidence-based policy that focuses on content safety, digital literacy, and ensuring platforms prioritise user wellbeing by design.”
He adds: “Our own research at Bath shows that we need to move beyond simplistic questions about whether screen time is “good” or “bad” and instead focus on understanding how young people use technology, what content they’re engaging with, and why.
“The type of content consumed matters far more than simply the amount of time spent online,” notes David, adding that from a cognitive perspective, it doesn’t appear that screen time impacts attention spans in the way that’s often claimed.
“Recent research from other labs has observed that individual differences, for example whether an adolescent has a mental health condition, plays a crucial role in determining whether social media experiences are positive or negative. However, when it comes to the impacts of social media and smartphones on children’s well-being, the size of any effect is very small and far smaller when compared to many other factors we know impact children’s development.”
He notes that there needs to be a collaborative approach between policy makers, tech companies, and schools.
“Tech companies must prioritise user wellbeing in their design decisions and build in safety systems. Policymakers should focus on evidence-based regulation that protects children from harmful content and predatory contact, rather than fan the flames of moral panic about screen time itself. Schools have a role in digital literacy education. But fundamentally, we need better research that combines high quality data with rigorous methodology to understand what actually helps or harms young people online.”
As the debate over children’s smartphone use deepens, one thing is clear: the technology shaping young lives today wields unprecedented power and influence. The task ahead is to strike a balance, nurturing digital confidence and connection, while safeguarding children from the harm that unfiltered access can bring.
Visit smartphonefreechildhood.org to sign up to the local Bath WhatsApp group and sign the Parent Pact.
Keep up to date on Bath’s schools on our Education News page