The Queen is right – children must be helped to ditch smarthpones | Royal | News
The Queen is right. Anything that gets kids off their phones should be a national priority. According to the National Literacy Trust, children’s reading for pleasure has reached its lowest level in 20 years; By 2025, only one in three children aged eight to 18 will read in their spare time. This is a 36% decrease from 2005.
The average British teenager spends more than 4.5 hours a day online outside of school. That’s almost a full-time job, more than 34 hours a week. It’s no wonder they have little time to read. But it’s not just about time. Most of the time, the pleasure we get from reading can’t compete with the intense dopamine hit from social media and games.
Dopamine levels in the digital world can be double that of everyday experiences, like singing along to our favorite song or a day out with friends. It’s no wonder kids get angry when asked to put down their phones. They are like drug addicts chasing the next fix.
The harms of heavy smartphone use are well understood. Children who use their smartphones for more than five hours a day are twice as likely to experience anxiety and three times more likely to be depressed.
And it’s not just the impact on mental health. The latest research points to the devastating impact of short-form content consumption and frequent interruptions on cognitive abilities. The attention economy has created a ‘distracted generation’.
But the tide is turning. Parents are increasingly realizing the benefits of postponing smartphones until their children reach adolescence. Schools are becoming increasingly smartphone-free, not just in primary school but also in school grounds.
Many secondary schools give up smartphones in Year 7 and increase this each year. As more and more kids get their first smartphone in their teens, let’s hope they’ll spend more time reading and the adventure it brings.
