Free outdoor play and happy kids go together like crab and callalloo. You can’t have one without the other. That has been our tradition in the Caribbean. With the advent of smartphones in the last 15 years, that has changed.
Smartphones and irritable kids go together like rum and Coca-Cola, drugs and porn. The effect seems to be the same, a mental drunkenness. Kids drunk on TikTok and Instagram videos and accusations and commess. You can’t have one without the other.
It’s quite extraordinary how we have permitted this social experiment to be carried out on our children without thinking of possible consequences.
No one ever pretested the idea of allowing children free and easy access to social media. No mother or father ever apparently thought of the consequences of exposing their child to all manner of philosophies and beliefs without their knowing what their child was seeing and hearing. The same people who refuse to give their children vaccinations, despite over 50 years of monitoring, see nothing wrong with giving their 9-year-old a smartphone, which immediately exposes her to every smartman or pervert in the world without their permission.
We try to prevent children from smoking or now, vaping. They can’t drive until they are 17. We refuse them access to alcohol until they are 18 and now pushing for 21. We don’t want them interacting with the guys in the street corner rum shop but we allow them free access to strangers we know nothing about, to businessmen intent on taking their money, and to porn, not only in their homes but in school, and then want to know why they behaving so!
The results? Play-based childhood has shifted towards phone-based childhood, i.e. time with friends and time playing away from screens has decreased with lamentable results. Over the last two decades, there has been an increase in mental health problems related to the overuse of smartphones among adolescents in every country studied. Heavy use of smartphones (more than two hours a day) causes decreased sleep. Chronic sleep deprivation can cause mental health problems. Heavy use of smartphones causes attention problems. Attention problems can cause a decline in mental health. Heavy use of smartphones causes behavioural addiction, which, in turn, can cause mental health problems. Heavy use of smartphones causes social deprivation (isolation and lack of formative social experiences), which can cause a decline in mental health.
The effects are more pronounced in girls. They use social media platforms more than boys. Social media increases visual comparisons among adolescent girls. It increases perfectionism and body dissatisfaction, and so increases the opportunities for social bullying and exclusion. And it increases the potential for sexual predation and harassment by providing predators access to potential victims.
This knowledge is slowly becoming apparent to parents, health professionals and adolescents. At least one-third of US college students would prefer for social platforms not to exist and most parents all over the world are now beginning to talk about delaying the age at which children should receive smartphones.
Most professional organisations caring for children believe that if parents delayed giving their children smartphones until around age 16, their mental health would improve. And there is a powerful movement globally for banning smartphones from schools.
The evidence is rather clear. Smartphones paradoxically make dotish children and should be banned under the age of 16.
This is exactly what Australia is proposing. Their new law says social media networks have to take “reasonable steps” to prevent those under 16 from having an account when the law comes into force in December.
There is strong support in other countries for such a ban. In the UK, three-quarters of the public support this. Three out of every four UK politicians across the political spectrum support the ban.
In the meantime, individual schools are instituting bans on the use of smartphones on school grounds. Quebec in Canada has banned cellphones in classrooms since January 1, 2024, and is implementing a full ban on electronic devices in schools starting this month, including during breaks.
One teacher said, “It’s so nice to hear voices in the corridors again!”
Children now seem to want freedom from their phones. A study this year of 500 American children aged 8-12 asked the question, “How would you rather spend time with friends?” Forty-five per cent answered, “Free play, in person, no parents around,” just doing what they wanted. Thirty per cent replied, “Organised activity” parents around but in person. Twenty-five per cent said, “Online.”
Even in an era where children are accustomed to controlled play activities, whether by parent or social media corporations, the majority still wanted to be able to play freely. What about here?
