Call to ban under-16s from phones and social media

Parents are concerned about how screens are affecting how children learn

A mother has started a campaign to highlight the danger of phones for young people as pupils get ready to take exams.

Miranda Wilson, from Bath, set up Teched Off to raise awareness of the dangers of social media and smartphones for young people.

As students up and down the country are taking their GCSEs and A-levels, there are concerns about how excessive screen time is affecting how they learn.

Ms Wilson said: "What I would like is really simple; one is legislation to stop under-16s being on smartphones and social media and two is a public health campaign so parents are educated about the harms."

At a panel discussion event in Bath this week, Ms Wilson screened a film about the dangers of smartphones for children, featuring interviews with health professions who are part of the group Health Professionals for Safer Screens.

Dr Rebecca Foljambe, founder of the group, said children are dealing with issues like "very poor sleep" and body image concerns.

Dr Rebecca Foljambe said children deal with poor sleep due to screens

Dr Foljambe said: "Speech and language therapists are profoundly concerned and they are adamant that these issues with young children hearing and speaking fewer words, taking less conversational turns, is directly associated to the amount of time they're on screens.

"There is no evidence for benefits of these screens for children aged 0-2, full stop. None."

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She added that at a time when many young people are sitting exams there are concerns about their ability to focus and to revise.

A recent project in one Somerset school showed that taking phones away during school hours made a huge difference.

Arabella Skinner from Health Professionals for Safer Screens said: "We spend time, money and energy to try and shift those grades and if we can shift it by one or two grades simply by taking phones out, I can't understand why we won't do it."

The Department of Health said earlier this year that "more robust" evidence is needed to drawn conclusions about the impact of smartphones on children, and added it is conducting its own research led by the University of Cambridge.