Next gov urged to introduce stronger phone guidance

There has been an increase of more than half (52 per cent) in children’s screen time between 2020 and 2022, a report from the Education Committee has found.

It suggested that nearly 25 per cent of children and young people use their smartphones in a way that is consistent with a behavioural addiction.

Screen use has been found to start as early as six months of age. 

Chair of the Education Committee, Robin Walker, said: “Excessive screen and smartphone use has a clear negative impact on the mental and physical wellbeing of children and young people."

He called the statistics "shocking."

Walker added: “From exposure to pornography, to criminal gangs using online platforms to recruit children, the online world poses serious dangers. 

“Whilst there can be some benefits from the online world and sharing information or interests with their peers, ready, unsupervised and unrestricted access to the internet leaves children vulnerable, exposing them to a world they are not equipped for. Their safeguarding and protection must be our priority.”

As well as harms to mental and physical health, screen time can disrupt pupils’ learning both at home and in the classroom, as it can take up to 20 minutes for pupils to refocus on what they were learning after engaging in a non-academic activity such as browsing the internet or noticing a notification on their phone.  

The Education Committee said they support the tougher guidance on keeping phones out of the classroom and breaktimes that the Department recently issued. 

However, the Committee heard mixed evidence on how well taken up this will be, and therefore recommend formal monitoring and evaluation of this approach by the next government with the possibility of a statutory ban if needed.  

They also concluded that screen time should be minimal for younger children and better balanced with face-to-face socialisation and physical activity for older ones.  

Almost eight in ten children have encountered violent pornography before the age of 18, with the average age that children first see pornography being 13 years old.

As well as this, one in five children aged 10-15 experienced at least one type of bullying behaviour online, and out of them, around three-quarters (72 per cent) said they experienced at least some of it at school or during school time. 

The report called for the level of digital age of consent to be effectively enforced.

The Online Safety Act 2023 allows for substantial fines or even imprisonment for executives of companies who breach its rules, and the Committee said the government should consider how this approach can be applied to social media companies who knowingly breach age verification requirements and expose children to addictive content which is not appropriate for them. 

They added that the next government should work with mobile phone companies and network operators to promote children’s phones, a class of phone which can be used for contact and GPS location but not access to the internet or downloading apps.