WHY SMARTPHONES?

The internet today is based on social media i.e. virtual networks and user-generated content. It is predominantly accessed on smartphones. Smartphones and social media have evolved together and now present a unique set of challenges for children and their families.

A pocket-sized internet connection is not necessary for children. It gives them unsupervised internet access wherever they go and no means of escape from cyber-bullying and harassment. Children just need a basic phone without an internet connection for safety and to stay in-touch with family and friends. However, safe phones designed for children are not yet available in the UK.

Looking after parental controls is a full-time job and for many busy parents its too much to keep on top of. Were it not so, we would not have the terrible statistics on child online harms. Smartphones are designed for adults and come with the possibility of installing any of an infinite number of apps. Kids know this and, therefore, even with the best parental controls, they will want to keep up with their mates and will constantly campaign for more and more apps on their phone. This is why we need safe phones designed for kids.

The risks

Addiction

Smartphones are primarily used to access social media in its many forms. Social media, apps and games are designed to be addictive. 

“There are only two industries that call their customers 'users': illegal drugs and software”, 

Edward Tufte, professor of computer science, Yale. 

Screen time can be limited but this does not stop them being addictive. 

Impact on mental health 

There is mounting evidence that social media is responsible for a mental health crisis in young people. Suicide rates among young people have increased dramatically around the world since 2011. Even for children as young as 8. 

Social media exploits children’s social anxieties, encouraging them to constantly seek approval through ‘likes’ and to compete and compare themselves to others. This often leaves them feeling excluded, insecure and bullied. This has caused a huge surge in depression, anxiety disorder and  suicide in children and young people.

Sexual harassment and cyber-bullying

Before smartphones, if we were bullied, we could usually find safety and respite at home. Today, with smartphones, children are bullied 24-7 with no respite. Even more, because of social media, children can be ridiculed publicly in front of everyone. The words and pictures put online about them by others stay online as a permanent reminder beyond their control. 

Smartphones are commonly used by children of all ages to share nude photographs and videos. Girls in primary schools are teased by boys for being a prude if they don’t share nudes and bullied by other girls if they do.

Bad influences

Unsupervised access to social media exposes children to poor-quality material that can provide bad role-models and be dangerous. For example, dangerous TikTok challenges have seen children seriously injure themselves and even be killed. The latest algorithms and AI are used by technology firms to keep children engaged. These algorithms can create a toxic digital bubble, dividing and isolating people, changing our core values, driving misinformation and disinformation and potentially leading to radicalisation. 

There is an abundance of poor-quality, inappropriate and adult content on social media that is not completely filtered by parental controls. Parental controls cannot protect your child from the effect of algorithms or, guarantee the quality of material they drive to your child. 

Violent pornography

Violent adult material is far more prevalent and accessible than ever before. With so many smartphones in the hands of children it is unsurprising that many have already been exposed to traumatising hardcore adult material. It should not be surprising that we are now finding out that the majority of children have seen this kind of material before they leave primary school, often before they have had formal sex and relationships education. 

This is having a devastating effect on the way children and young people are understanding sex and relationships. We have seen a huge rise in child-on-child violent sexual abuse in recent years. 

This kind of material is available on all social media platforms. It is often driven to children and young people by algorithms. However, children are naturally curious and may innocently come across it or be shown by a friend. Parental controls are never 100% effective and young children are highly likely to see it on another child’s device. This is why parents need to work collectively to solve this.

Grooming and sexual exploitation

Smartphones and social media provide opportunities for predators to make contact with your child. Predators can make contact through online games and social media, often using fake profiles pretending to be children themselves. They gain your child’s trust and threaten them into performing sexual acts on camera. This is incredibly common and is traumatising for children, leaving them with feelings of shame and guilt. 

Unfortunately, even parents who make every effort to protect their children, have now been put in a situation where we have to explain these risks to them from an age when they are far too young to understand, to prepare them for the worst, so that they will talk to us when this occurs. All because children have smartphones unnecessarily. 

Financial exploitation

Online scams are widespread and children are routinely targeted and exploited financially online. 

We need to teach children how to be safe online but we need to have fair and realistic expectations of them. By handing your child a smartphone you are putting them at risk of making a mistake or being the target of fraudulent activity. Delaying giving your child a smartphone is the basic first step to internet safety without placing the burden of responsibility on your child.

Digital footprint, data collection and psychological profiling

Websites and apps collect huge amounts of data about us for psychological profiling. As adults we make an informed choice about whether we agree to this. Children do not have the capacity to weigh up the pros and cons and make an informed choice about the record of their online behaviour by technology platforms. It is unfair to subject them to this without their being capable of informed consent. That is why most social media platforms have an age limit of 13.

Smartphones can disrupt family relationships 

Many parents regret giving their child a smartphone. Children often become inattentive and isolated from those around them as they are drawn increasingly into online interactions. 

Stunted socialisation

Time spent on social media is time taken away from family and friends in reality. Children and young people are increasingly isolated from each other. Technology designed to connect us is driving us apart. Increasingly, children report feeling more comfortable communicating on a screen than face to face. Teachers report children not knowing the names of their classmates and not wanting to interact because they are not friends online. Yet, communicating through a screen lacks the nuances of physical communication. Screens create an emotional disconnect that means its easy to be hurtful. Communicating through messages, its harder to interpret the other persons intent. This often leads to misunderstandings, confusion and anguish, contributing to young peoples anxiety. 

Spending too much time interacting online at the expense of face-to-face, young people are not learning the intricacies of how to socialise in person.

Distraction from schoolwork

Constant notifications and the nagging desire to check for likes and messages on addictive social media platforms and games are a massive distraction from schoolwork. 

Attention disorders and behavioural problems

The constant flashing and moving colourful images and the instant rewards of games and social media are having a detrimental effect on young people’s attention. It is harder for young people to focus for long on off-screen activities such as reading, writing and arithmetic. 

Over exposure to violent and dramatic video games and video content can have a negative effect on children’s behaviour. Children can suffer withdrawal symptoms when they don’t have access to games or social media. 

Body-image, self-esteem and eating disorders

Social media is filled with people showing their best. This often leads young people to compare themselves negatively with others. Children can be easily overexposed to idealized and harmful body types, leading to anxiety, depression, self-objectification, sexualisation, eating disorders and self-harm or suicide. 

Time taken away from valuable childhood experiences

It is most healthy for children to spend time meeting, playing and interacting in-person with friends. Ideally, children need to spend as much time as possible doing physical activities and being outdoors together with friends and family. Technology takes valuable time away from those things.

Even if children are spending time together with friends and family, or are out somewhere, having a smartphone with them can take them away psychologically from their surroundings.