'Smartphones are no longer safe for children'

Brighton & Hove City Council is asking parents to wait until their child is 14 before giving them a smartphone

Brighton & Hove City Council is calling for parents to not give their children smartphones until the age of 14.

Emma Daniel, cabinet member for children, families and youth services, said children should instead be given "cheap, old fashioned" alternatives.

"The dangers to your child of criminal sexual exploitation are so great that it's now come to a point where we have to say to parents that it isn't safe," she said.

The NSPCC reported that police in the UK recorded more than 7,000 offences of sexual communications with a child in 2023/24.

The council said there were exceptions to their plan, for instance if a child was diabetic and monitored their blood sugar levels using a smartphone.

'Deeply disturbing'

Four primary schools in the city have banned smartphones, while three secondary schools have introduced lockable pouches for students to put their phones in when they arrive each day.

In Kent, one headteacher said banning phones from his school had a positive impact on his students.

Damien McBeath, from the John Wallis Academy in Ashford, said: "We know that young people aren't safe when they're online. Many of them are seeing images that are deeply disturbing and it's being normalised.

"We found when we gave children a break, for just the seven hours a day that they're in school, children prefer it this way. They prefer having that human contact.

"If you speak to children, very few of them say they prefer to be locked in a room doom scrolling."