An accessible audio version is available on Spotify here:  Keeping Childhood SmartPhone Free

Last night, I was really happy to speak to a large group of parents of primary school children from my own community in Ashbourne, Co. Meath.  Like many communities right now, this was to talk about the initiative to Keep Childhood Smartphone Free.  

What is it?

Read the document here: Keeping Childhood SmartPhone Free

In short, a couple of years ago, parents in Greystones came together as a community and said no smartphone before secondary schools. It was highly successful, and has started to be copied by many, many communities across Ireland.  The government then wrote this framework document to help guide communities.  Basically, come together as a community, make a decision as a community, and then talk to children. (need help having these conversations with your child?  Try www.webwise.ie)  With this approach, it becomes a level playing field.

A level playing field where no young teenagers are on social media takes the pressure off everyone – teenagers and parents alike. – Dr. Catherine Conlon

Why now?

There’s never the perfect time, but many communities are ahead of us. It’s a good time to have this conversation as a community ahead of Christmas when many children will be looking for smartphones.

Which brings us to the obvious question:  Why is a doctor talking about this? 

Because this is now a health crisis, recognised from Australia (who recently banned social media to under 16s) to the UK to the United States:

children are exposed to harmful content on social media, ranging from violent and sexual content, to bullying and harassment. And for too many children, social media use is compromising their sleep and valuable in-person time with family and friends. We are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis, and I am concerned that social media is an important driver of that crisis – one that we must urgently address  – US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy:

But is it a problem here?  Let’s look at some stats from Ireland (numbers from CyberSafeKids):

• 24% of six year olds have their own smartphone

• 45% of 10 year olds are allowed use their smartphones in their bedrooms.

• Only 28% of parents use parental controls

• 20% of parents feel the good the internet could bring their children outweighs the risks.

• 80% of parents of children aged 11 with smartphones said their child’s internet access is only sometimes or never supervised.

It is important for parents to be aware that in Ireland, the Age of Digital Consent is 16.The digital age of consent is the “minimum age a user must be before a social media or internet company can collect, process and store their data.”  Between age 13 and 16 years old must have parental permission to sign-up to social media services. Therefore technically, children under the age of 13 should not have a social media account (including SnapChat or WhatsApp). However, parents should be aware that it is quite easy for children to bypass those age restrictions.

So, let’s break it down:  Health Effects of Smartphones on Children

Loss of the Safe Space: This one I cannot emphasise enough as a driver of anxiety.  When a child comes home from school and enters the family home and that door closes, what behaviour do we usually see?  Many children “decompress”  – they have been good sitting all day, trying so hard to learn, trying to fit in with peers.  When they come home to you, they let it all out. Also, no matter how bad the day was – it’s outside the home until at least tomorrow.  When you bring smartphones, social media, and other digital connections — it all follows them into their safe space. There is no break.

FOMO/FOLO:  Fear of Missing Out and Fear of being Left Out were recently cited by teens in Ireland as a major problem. They felt they used their phones too much, they wanted to use them less – but had anxiety about being left out. That anxiety to fit in with peers is an age-appropriate developmental step.

Sexualised Content that disturbs children, including violence, rape, misogyny, lack of consent, unrealistic body type, unsafe sexual practices.  In young children, sexuality itself can be very confusing:

• The average age by which children had viewed pornography was 13.

•  Ten per cent had seen pornography by age nine, and 27 per cent had seen it by 11.

• 23% of girls first encounter pornography between ages 10 and 13

 ‘I truly believe we will look back in 20 years and be shocked by the content to which children were exposed. Let me be absolutely clear: online pornography is not equivalent to a ‘top shelf’ magazine. The adult content parents may have accessed in their youth could be considered ‘quaint’ in comparison to today’s world of online pornography. Depictions of degradation, sexual coercion and aggression are commonplace and disproportionately targeted against teenage girls.’ – UK Children’s Commissioner 2023

Sleep: 

• A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that children ages 6 to 18 had an 88% higher risk of not sleeping enough when devices were in the bedroom and a 53 percent higher risk of getting a bad night’s sleep—and that’s when devices were in the bedroom just three nights a week.  I will tell you from my clinical practice that devices in the bedroom at any age are a bad idea. 

• Did you know? At baseline in Ireland, up to 1/3 of 11 year olds go to bed after 11pm, ¼ go to bed after midnight

Staying in the real, 3D world is important for gross motor, fine motor and emotional development.  Your child is learning about their human world well past toddlerhood.  If your child is acting out and you hand them a tablet and they stop – is that a good thing? Not really.  Using screen means they are not learning to deal with expressing emotion, dealing with frustration, problem solving is not good.  Likewise, children need to play.  Play is work. Building with blocks in real life has developmental benefits that we do not see if it is done on screen. Coloring with a crayon is not the same as drawing with their finger on a screen.

What happens to all that time?  Their days are so short!   With devices, we are concerned that a child will still have all the time they need for play, physical activity, sleep, and family connection? Where do they really lose out?  It seems to be physical activity.  Did you know that your child – and teen! – need an average of 60 minutes vigorous play per day and many do not get that, leading ot increasing health problems that we see daily in our health service at present. 

Studies show that once a young person gets a phone in Ireland, the average use is 4 – 6 hours per day.

Cyberbullying is a crime. It leads to mental health problems, self-harm and suicide in children and teens. Children and young people can be vulnerable to cyberbullying.  Many children have immature judgement due to age, saying things on a screen that they wouldn’t say in real life.  This is due to many developmental factors in the young brain, including impulsiveness and the inability to really understand consequences of actions through child and teenage years.

Boundaries and Privacy –  The sharing of personal information and the potential for online privacy breaches can lead to stress and anxiety.  The culture of “oversharing” can confuse children – not realizing what should be private or what isn’t real  They have little concept that what is put out there is there forever or how far or who quickly it can travel – and with rare exception, that it can’t be undone or taken back.

Reduced Face-to-Face Interaction: Excessive phone use may lead to reduced face-to-face social interactions, which are important for the development of social skills and emotional intelligence. Tone, sarcasm, social cues, showing empathy – children are all still developing these skills and critical for relationships.

Comparison and Self-Esteem:  Constant exposure to curated and idealized representations of others’ lives on social media can lead to negative self-comparisons and lower self-esteem, particularly among young people.  “It’s not real” is not enough to counter the harmful effects.  Three out of four children as young as 12 dislike their bodies and are embarrassed by the way they look. Between ages 12 and 21, 40% were in mental health distress, with 20% experiencing body image issues and 14% experiencing disordered eating.

Toxic Masculinity has had a real effect on boys as young as 9 or 10.  Teachers in England and Wales have called for better support to deal with the “alarming” misogynistic influence of social media on children in schools, specifically teenage boys. One school resorted to setting up a staff committee after noticing that pupils as young as 11 and 13 were using sexist language used by online influencers such as Andrew Tate. In England, since 2023, incidents involving children as young as 9 or 10 have been reported.  The children’s commissioner for Wales echoed the calls adding that “sexist and misogynistic language can have an effect in real life”.  If you are the mother of tween/teen boys are not aware of this culture, DCU has a new parent resource launcing this month but you can listen back to this webinar. I also highly recommend listening back to any interview that you can find with the authors of the book “Clown World”.

Addiction:  Screens are addictive and the young brain is vulnerable to that.

I’ve focused on health effects.  There are significant safety risks, which were covered on the evening by retired garda Mick Moran, CEO of Hotline.ie. including exposure to predators, fraud, groomers and violent messaging within the messaging/chat features on games such as Roblox and Fortnite that many parents are unaware of. Many parents are also unaware of the safety risks in apps, such as the map embedded as a default in SnapChats. If your children are on these apps, get up to speed.