The Problem

When we all started using smartphones, we had little understanding of the impact they have on children and teenagers. Now we do. The evidence is overwhelming and we need to act, now.

Smartphones are robbing our kids of their childhoods. They are having devastating effects on sleep, they negatively impact education, they reduce attention-spans, they expose children to harmful content, their use correlates with mental health problems and they’re highly addictive. Explore the evidence below.

When we give our children access to the whole world in their pocket, we give the whole world access to our children.

Take a look at some ideas of what we can do about it or explore more evidence below.

Smartphones are highly addictive

Tech companies spend billions on making apps and devices that are intentionally addictive, affecting children in a way that is similar to gambling. Recent studies confirm that internet addiction rewires adolescent brains, changing their behaviour and development.

Changes in the brain of adolescents with internet addiction

Smartphones reduce attention-spans

A reduction in the ability to concentrate is one of the critical outcomes of the rewiring of children’s brains. This can have a devastating effect on their schoolwork and personal relationships.

2021 Study by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights

Smartphones disrupt education

Smartphones are a huge distraction in schools (and other education areas), resulting in a negative impact on academic performance, a decline in learning and study time, and a lack of engagement with teachers and other learners.

UNESCO calls for global ban on Smartphones in schools

Smartphone use correlates to mental health problems

Early smartphone adoption by children has been directly linked to poor mental health outcomes and low self-esteem; the earlier a child gets a smartphone, the worse the outcome on average. Social media use in teens correlates directly with rates of anxiety and depression.

Social Media Use and Adolescent Mental Health

Smartphones expose children to harmful content

Unsupervised access to the internet is a gateway to pornography, violent imagery, bullying, grooming and other harmful content. Social media has been proven to increase self-harm and suicidal tendencies among adolescents.

2020 study on smartphones and mental health

Smartphones have devastating effects on sleep

Excessive smartphone use has been linked to less sleep and reduced quality of sleep for children and adolescents. Sleep deficiency has in turn been linked to depression, suicide and reckless risk-taking behaviour.

Relationship between smartphone overuse and sleep in children

The case against smartphones and social media usage by children is made in convincing detail by US social psychologist Jonathan Haidt in his international bestseller The Anxious Generation. Haidt is at the forefront of a global conversation on the topic, advocating for a change in digital norms in the same way that the norms for seatbelts, suncream and smoking have changed in the past.