Will withholding phones solve children’s mental health crisis?
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As the summer holidays draw to a close and the back-to-school season finally dawns (notice the sigh of relief among parents), the use of mobile phones by young children is back in the news, as teachers, parents and even mobile phone companies have waded in to warn about the impacts of screen time, especially on young children. They are also proposing solutions to lessen the impacts phones are having on children’s scholarly and social lives.
Britain’s biggest mobile network operator, EE, said this week that parents should not give smartphones to children under the age of 11, amid growing concern among parents, educators and health workers about the potential harm smartphones are having on society as a whole and on younger children in particular. Research in the past decade has consistently demonstrated higher rates of mental health issues among children, shortened attention spans, reduced school attendance and worsening academic performance, with extended screen times often blamed. Some even suggest that smartphones have rewired children’s brains, leading to an increasingly “anxious generation” that is addicted to cellphones, an illness resistant to all remedies.
Though EE needs to be commended for its warning, many believe that it is a case of too little, too late. I believe that anything short of a holistic approach to the reform of our digital landscape — involving phone companies, internet providers, social media moderators and government regulation and that permits accountability in addition to parental and educational efforts — will leave society to reap what it has been sowing for the past decade.
In the UK, a recent study by the communications regulator Ofcom found that a staggering quarter of British children aged between 5 and 7 years now have a smartphone. I am minded to believe that the problem is really getting out of hand and that the well-being of children worldwide, not just in the UK, is in the balance.
Parents everywhere have long been pushing back against giving their children a smartphone when they transfer from primary to secondary school at the age of 11, which some often argue is justified due to peer pressure or on safety grounds. But parents have also been increasingly noticing that owning a phone potentially opens children up to online predators, bullying, social pressure and harmful content, even with parental control features for those under the age of 16 and restrictions on social media for under-13s.
No one can question that technology and connectivity have transformed our lives and, in many respects, for the better. But that has come at a price, mainly but not solely paid by the weakest in society, those who are young and impressionable.
Many believe there is a tangible link between time spent on social media and teens suffering mental health problems.
Mohamed Chebaro
According to Ofcom, some 97 percent of children in the UK have a mobile phone by the age of 12, while 46 percent of American teenagers report that they are online “almost constantly.” Since smartphones began invading households everywhere, it has been observed that the rates of suicide, self-harm and anxiety diagnoses among teens have increased and many believe that there is a tangible link between time spent flicking through social media and teens suffering mental health problems.
Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist, wrote in “The Anxious Generation” that there is a compelling argument that the uptick in time spent online has coincided with an alarming mental health crisis all over the world. His book explains that tech development and the designing of “addictive content” has displaced in-person physical play and socializing, meaning that such companies have “rewired childhood” and changed human development on a scale that has shocked parents and educators alike.
As the new school year begins, teachers everywhere are grappling to find ways to engage students and lower their addiction to their mobile phones. They are designing some of their lessons differently, encouraging physical activity and outdoor learning and using every trick in the book to steer children away from their screens. Some educators and government officials have advocated banning devices from classrooms, while others suggest that education, raising awareness and persuasion are the best tools to curb this modern children’s addiction.
Stories from classrooms everywhere describe a breakdown of authority, trust and compliance among children and the inability of teachers to peel students away from their digital bubble during class. In the past, school was a place to learn, make friends and develop social skills. Now, despite all tutors’ efforts, classes are becoming places where students as young as 11 and as old as 18 prefer to pay attention to their social media feeds. Classes are quieter, as students refrain from expressing themselves for fear of being recorded and ridiculed by their classmates or online. Some even prefer to send messages to their peers instead of talking to them, despite being in the same room.
This behavioral pattern will be difficult to change, as the young have been showing signs of physically withdrawing from their peers, family and societal activities as a whole. One wonders if parents acting in unison to withhold phones during school time is enough. Governments must work harder to regulate and work with tech companies to remove toxic content and enforce stricter age-related access to social media platforms.
During this school year, things are unlikely to be different, as students continue to look at phones as mesmerizing and addictive. It is no wonder that many from Generation Z and those that came after are in crisis. But parents, teachers, tech companies and the government still have time to reverse this detrimental pattern if they work together and put the health and well-being of children and society ahead of all other considerations.
• Mohamed Chebaro is a British Lebanese journalist with more than 25 years of experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy. He is also a media consultant and trainer.
