Children with smartphones

[BreakingAndBroke]

Apologies if there is already a thread on this, but I saw it today and thought it worth sharing.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/parenting/parents-children-smartphones-not-allowing/
"Greenwell, Reynolds, and evidently a significant number of other parents, believe this is insane. “It’s starkly clear when you look at the rise in anxiety, depression and self-harm in teens, it directly correlates with the decade in which we had smartphones,” says Greenwell. “Studies have shown they change the structure of developing brains. I want to protect my daughter.”

Excessive smartphone use by children, teenagers and young adults has been linked with impaired cognitive functions and mental health problems, with some studies finding frequent mobile phone use among adolescents predicts a higher incidence of symptoms of anxiety and depression."

Would you feel more comfortable not giving your child a smartphone if everyone else from his/her year group was going without too? Or would you give your child a smartphone regardless of what everyone else was doing?

This is a useful webpage
Smartphone free childhood

Yes I would much rather my dc do not have a smartphone. However without one currently they would be socially excluded and they already have anxiety. Unfortunately we can't turn back technology or time.

I really hope these campaigns gain momentum. Would love a petition / govt lobby to ban smart phones for under 16s. They're a huge hazard and risk to our children's mental health and there's much data to back this up. I'll definitely be delaying getting them as long as I possibly can with my two, even if it makes me unpopular. I know it's easier said than done 😥

It's surely the 'iPads' adding to this as well

Everyone seems to think iPads are safe

Agree, and very sensible. Mine aren’t getting one until at least age 13. Nope, nope, nope.

they can have:

• extra curriculars with friends
• games played with friends online (supervised)
• games on iPad
• a Nokia-esque for texts and contacting
• all the play dates / hangouts / trips we can facilitate

but social media, and algorithm based videos, nope. Studies have shown the detriment, and I’m not comfortable.

This is what I don’t get.

Everyone seems fine with tiny kids having iPads, but aghast at phones. What is so different? (You don’t need to download all the social media on phones… or let your DC take them anywhere they wouldn’t take an iPad…)

I don't think everyone is ok with young children having iPads either , DS doesn't have one and won't. He's not the only one in his class. IME children have their parent's phone shoved into their hands to keep them quiet before they have an IPad. He had also never used either of our phones. It's not necessary or beneficial

Mine are 13 and 10, neither have phones. They have other devices (only in the past couple of years) and we noticed real deteriation in behaviour linked to YouTube, so that's now banned. Thankfully they're not bothered about the social aspect of having a phone.

Sorry I should say, none of my kids have had an iPad. But they are very very unusual amongst their peers - including the nursery age one. I work with 5 year olds and they all talk about their iPads constantly. When we go on planes, mine are the only kids not on tablets. So many kids at restaurants using them. So I mean for sure not everyone is ok with it but giving kids tablets seems fairly widely accepted … at least where I live (small, economically diverse city).

I'm shocked at how many children have unsupervised access to phones/ipads. I've given them a chance multiple times and watched the things our friends kids are watching on you tube on their ipads and it's absolute trash - loud/ shouty/ poor quality. Their parents always insist it's YouTube kids or educational apps. sit with them for 5 minutes to see they are more tech savvy than their parents.

I am holding off giving my 9yo an ipad as long as possible which she already feels left out about.

I let her on my laptop ( supervised) and she has access to a ps5 and certain games ( again supervised). She has free reign of Netflix and I don't restrict that. I'm not against screen time, but the quality of most stuff on youtube is brain rotting. Autoplay just leads them down weird routes.

I honestly don't know the best approach.