“If I can’t always responsibly manage a phone – how do I expect my 10-year-old to do so?”

How delaying the age at which children are given smartphones is becoming a global trend

11 November 2024

By Kathleen Starck

There are an abundance of studies on children and smartphone usage, which warn of potential health and wellbeing problems, especially when it comes to the addictive nature of social media. Potential dangers include: sleep disruption, reduced physical activity, social isolation, cyberbullying and mental health, attention and concentration issues. In spite of this, by the time they are 11 years old, 91% of British children own a smartphone. By the age of 12, the number rises to 97%. Numbers for other countries are similar.

However, as Sarah Bonnema, instructor at the South Florida College of Public Health, points out, children, whose brains are still developing, are simply not equipped to withstand the addictive potential of smartphone use: “I look at the growing body of research about how smartphones may impact our social and emotional lives, our focus and mental clarity, and our happiness and I wonder: if I can’t always responsibly manage a phone — even when I want to — how do I expect my 10-year-old to do it? […] she’s still developing self-management and social and emotional skills.”

As this awareness is spreading, there seems to be a trend for schools in several countries to ban smart phones (e.g. many Asian countries, the Netherlands, France, Australia, the UK, some places in the U.S.) or certain applications (e.g. Google Workspace or TikTok). Politicians have also started paying attention to the issue. For example, the UK House of Commons held a debate on “The impact of smartphones and social media on children” earlier this year, and the Australian government has just proposed a law, which increases the age for access to social media to 16. In addition, even mobile phone providers are advising parents not to give their children a smartphone before the age of 11 (see BBC) and former engineers and executives of companies such as Facebook, YouTube, Google and Twitter publicly warn of the neuroscience-based inbuilt addictiveness of their own products. Many also declare that they are keeping their own children from social media (see the slightly melodramatic but also very scary documentary The Social Dilemma on Netflix).

However, many parents feel that not enough is being done to protect their children and have founded parent initiatives. In the UK a local WhatsApp group, “Smartphone Free Childhood”, founded by two mothers early in 2024, exploded into a nation-wide campaign and had 37,000 UK signatures by October 2024. As part of the campaign, parents sign a pact with each other to avoid giving their children a smartphone at a young age. The underlying idea is that if parents are united in their refusal to give their children smartphones, less children will own smartphones and peer pressure on those without phones will be eased. By the summer of 2024 some even speak of a global movement due to parents’ concern about “the link between mental health issues in children and smartphone and social media use” (CNBC).

Interestingly, and relevant to each and every one of us, most reports on the issue also emphasise how important role models are for children.

So how is your own relationship with your phone?

Unesco on phones and schools

https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/smartphones-school-only-when-they-clearly-support-learning

Conway Medical Center

https://www.conwaymedicalcenter.com/news/topic/smartphones-and-children-are-these-hazardous-to-their-health/

Debate in the UK Commons

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2024-0103/

Proposed Australian law for increasing age of access to social media

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzd62g1r3o

Review of Social Dilemma in the Financial Times and the Independent

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/social-dilemma-netflix-film-media-facebook-twitter-algorithm-addiction-conspiracy-b454736.html