The right, divided between conservatives and libertarians, is divided over whether to try to mitigate the exceedingly obvious harm caused by new technology or to step back and let the market decide. According to a hole, the British government is considering passing a law banning the sale of smartphones to under-16s.
A prominent Tory MP points out that while the government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is working on a ban on selling phones to children under the age of 16,” no all change is improvement.” The state, for its piece, offered a “non- neglect” to the reported leak, saying simply they do not comment on guesswork, but that” Our commitment to making the UK the safest place to be a child electronically is unwavering”.
Influential Westminster inside site Guido Fawkes, which formerly splashed the information of the seemingly in- the- works phone ban, derides the idea as” Orwellian… authoritarian” and doomed to failure.
Obviously, the law may be easily circumvented, and most apps for kids are now bought by their families anyway. However, some people who support the change note that the law is a useful tool for establishing new standards and that the government may support that view by passing a act.
There is no real issue in the country to restrictions on having sex with children or against kids being able to drive vehicles on public streets, according to Conservative Party Member of Parliament Miriam Cates, who is solidly on the pro-family wing of the group.
In response to the potential prohibition, she wrote,” Libertarians will naturally oppose a ban on smartphones for children.” But it should be music to the ears of conservatives … regulation is necessary to protect children … There is now so much evidence that smartphones]and ] social media are causing unacceptable harm to kids — loss of vital developmental experiences, increase in suicide, anxiety &, sexual abuse — that it would be reckless not to act. As conservatives know, not all change is progress”.
British Children Spend Over 4 Hours a Day Staring at Screens After Lockdown, Just 40 Minutes Outsidehttps: //t. co/uljynv2ddu
— Breitbart London ( @BreitbartLondon ) March 31, 2022
Katherine Birbalsingh, a well-known schoolteacher and author known for her no-nonsense approach to education and appeal to traditional teaching, also praised the plan. She addressed the criticism of the usefulness of bans head-on, saying:” Yes, parents could still buy phones for their kids, but a law like this would help the country move the country culturally.  , Parents need to understand just how damaging smartphones are for children”.
Former police officer, army officer, and UKIP brief leader Henry Bolton remarked that “many parents” would be happy to see a change in the law because it would combat the “fear of missing out” among children when they first have access to digital devices at a young age. He claimed that parents are” confronted by their child saying,” Why ca n’t I have a phone, everyone else has one,” and that schools are urging pupils to download apps. The students themselves assume and anticipate that they will have smartphones. It’s madness”.
Indeed, a , Guardian report on the alleged fledgling policy draws attention to recent polling that found that four-fifths of parents think smartphones are “harmful” for children and that a majority of parents concur that they should be banned for under-16s.
The policy and polling come amid discussions about the harm smartphones, unfettered internet access, social networks, and pornography are having on children. On Wednesday, the long-awaited Cass report on child transgenderism was released. It examines “inline stressors and harm,” which are directly responsible for the severely depressed mental health of children, especially for young girls.
The study noted that more children’s daily use of social media was linked to a” stepwise increase in depressive symptom scores,” as well as citing numerous studies finding a link between” smartphone and social media use in mental distress and suicidality among young people, especially girls, with a clear dose- response relationship.”
Also discussed was the ubiquity of porn in the lives of children, citing a 2023 report stating that “pornography is so widespread , and normalised that children cannot ‘ opt out ‘… , The average age when children first see , pornography is 13, but 10 % have seen it by age , 9, and 27 % by 11… Some researchers ( Nadrowski, 2023 ) suggest , that exploration with gender- questioning , youth should include consideration of their , engagement with pornographic content”.
Separately, a New York Times best- selling nonfiction book on” the mental health impacts that a phone- based life has on children” found that “between 2010 and 2015, childhood and adolescence got rewired. Time online increased while time spent with friends and family decreased, and so did mental health. Teens traded in their flip phones for smartphones loaded with social media apps.
According to a paediatric study conducted in the United States last year, there is” a significant correlation between excessive screen time and developmental delays in children,” while in 2022 it was claimed that the average child in Britain spends four hours a day at a screen but only spends forty minutes outside.
