Conference to discuss impact of smartphones on children

Leaders from 34 schools in Brighton and Hove will meet to discuss the impact of smartphones on children.

It follows plans introduced to limit their use during the school day – including one school which implemented a complete ban due to safety concerns.

“This is such an important issue to us that we can’t say we can’t do something about it,” said Sarah Raymond of the campaign group Smartphone Free Childhood, which organized the conference on Thursday evening.

However, the group says children with medical conditions that require use of the app are an exception to the rule.

From September pupils at Cardinal Newman Catholic School in Brighton have been told they must keep their phones in pouches which will remain closed until the end of the day, and can only be unlocked by a magnetic device mounted on the wall.

Assistant principal Shawn Meaney said the voluntary restrictions put in place during the last academic year had not worked.

“The temptation of the phone rattling in your pocket is too great for many of our young people to resist,” he said.

Mr Meaney said phones distract students in class and are a security risk.

“There was also a threat of cyber bullying, taking photographs without consent and making videos in a negative and unkind manner.”

Smartphone Free Childhood has claimed that parents of almost 90,000 children in Britain have signed an agreement in which they have vowed not to buy their child a smartphone until they turn 14.

Ms Raymond, the group’s regional leader, described smartphones as “addictive by design”, highlighting sleep loss and cyber bullying as issues.

“Those experiences are disruptive. Kids need to live in the real world,” he said.

“We know that the younger they are given a smartphone, the worse their mental health.

“Smartphones are a gateway to harmful content, whether it’s pornographic content (or) violent content,” Ms Raymond said.

“It’s not the kind of thing you’d show kids in the real world.”

However, Smartphone Free Childhood said that if a child with diabetes needs to use an app to control their insulin levels, or any other medical condition, they should use it.