BRISTOL: Extra dad and mom and educators in Britain are pushing to limit youthful kids from getting access to smartphones amid issues over cyberbullying, inappropriate content material, and psychological well being.
There are additionally fears that dependence on mobile phones might have an effect on their capacity to speak and focus in future, mentioned observers.
BANNING PHONE SALES TO CHILDREN UNDER 16
This comes as practically 1 / 4 of five- to seven-year-olds within the UK now personal a smartphone, in keeping with communications regulator OFCOM.
A 3rd of youngsters on this age group use social media unsupervised, OFCOM discovered. An rising quantity even have their very own profiles on social media platforms regardless of being too younger.
Dr Benjamin Knight, senior lecturer in training on the College of the West of England Bristol, believes the tempo of technological change is a matter in the case of dad and mom controlling their kids’s on-line presence.
“I believe that speedy change, over what’s only a few a long time, has meant that we, as a society, are constructing the airplane while flying it,” mentioned Dr Knight, a father of two who was additionally a major faculty trainer for greater than a decade.
“In some ways, it is a stay experiment. And an excellent many academics, an excellent many dad and mom and maybe an excellent many policymakers as effectively, really feel as if the grown-ups are struggling to meet up with the tempo of change.”
The UK authorities is reportedly contemplating banning the sale of smartphones to kids youthful than 16.
A Downing Avenue spokesperson declined to remark, however famous that the federal government has not too long ago backed head academics who prohibit cellphone use through the faculty day.