Lawmakers have urged the incoming administration to consider a total ban on smartphones for under-16s and a legal ban on mobile phone use in schools as part of a crackdown on children’s screen time.
Members of the House of Commons Education Committee made the recommendations in their report on the impact of screen time on education and health, and called on ministers to raise the threshold for opening a social media account to 16.
The committee’s Conservative chairman, Robin Walker MP, said excessive screen and smartphone use was having a “clearly detrimental effect” on the health of children and young people.
Mr Walker said: “The online world poses serious dangers, from exposure to pornography to criminal gangs using online platforms to recruit children. Parents and schools face a difficult situation and the Government must do more to help them rise to the challenge. This may require drastic measures, such as banning smartphones for under-16s.”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is considering banning the sale of smartphones to under-16s and raising the minimum age for social media accounts, but has yet to publish a consultation schedule for the proposals.
The education committee’s report said the next government should work with communications regulator Ofcom to begin consultations on new measures around the use of smartphones – devices which allow apps to be easily downloaded and websites to be viewed. These could include a “blanket” ban on smartphones for under-16s, parental controls installed by default on phones and controls on app stores to stop children accessing inappropriate content.
The report also said the government should consider bringing in legislation to ban the use of mobile phones in schools in England, with ministers issuing “no mobile phone use” guidance to headteachers in February. Throughout the school day.
The report called for a formal monitoring regime to measure the impact of the ban and reserve the option of making it legal. “If results show that non-statutory bans have been ineffective for 12 months, the government should promptly introduce a statutory ban,” it said.
The report added that the next government should launch a consultation by the end of 2024 on whether 13 is the right age to allow social media platforms to access one’s personal data online and to open a social media account. 13 is the minimum age to open an account on most major platforms in the UK.
The report noted that the age of sexual consent in the UK is 16, children can only drive until 17 and the voting age in England is 18, adding: “The next government should recommend 16 as a more appropriate age.” [for the age of digital consent]. “
The report cited findings that children’s screen time will increase by 52% between 2020 and 2022, and that around 25% of children and young people use smartphones. AddictivelyAlso, An investigation by the Children’s Commissioner for England Surveys show that by the age of 18, 79% of children have encountered violent pornography online.
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The UK Communications Authority recently reported that a quarter of three- and four-year-olds in the UK own a smartphone, and by the age of 12, almost all children have a mobile phone. The communications regulator also found that half of children under the age of 13 use social media.
“The overwhelming evidence before us shows that the harms of screen time and social media use for young children significantly outweigh the benefits,” the lawmakers said.
A Smartphone-Free Childhood, a campaign group for restrictions on mobile phones, welcomed the report. “It is hugely encouraging that this influential committee, which heard a wide range of evidence from experts in education and child development, has come to the same conclusion as our grassroots community of 100,000 parents,” said Daisy Greenwell, co-founder of the group.
Ian Russell, chairman of the Molly Rose Foundation, whose 14-year-old daughter Molly died by suicide after viewing harmful content on social media, said the next government should focus on regulation rather than bans which could lead to “worse outcomes”.
“Banning smartphones and social media will do more harm than good and punish children for the tech companies’ failure to protect them. The next Government must follow the evidence and implement stronger regulations,” he said.
