Princess of Wales Warns Against Screentime

It looks as if times are changing, but it's a pity that in England there's only ever a big reaction when a Royal takes up a cause.

The American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has said it for years: Smartphones do a lot more than make phone calls. One thing they do is give children easy access to pornography, hate speech and the unmediated opinions of anyone with access to a keyboard. He directly correlates the increase of smartphone usage with teenage mental illness, and massively anxious, isolated smartphone users glued to their screens in preference to talking to other people, even their friends and peers. 

Texas, France and Australia have already banned smartphones in all state schools. In England the government hasn't done anything about the problem at all. If you're wondering if it actually is a problem, ask any teacher who's spent the first five minutes of a class wondering when the last child is going to stop trying to find a plug to find their phone, sit down and get on with what they're supposed to be doing. That was a regular event at the further education college I used to teach at.

Now that the Princess of Wales has got involved, (you can read her report here) and more to the point, got extensive press coverage doing so, maybe, just maybe, we'll see an improvement for the social skills, loneliness and whole lives of the next generation.  

It isn't the children's fault. They do what they see their parents do. 

Put the phone down. Talk to your children. It takes time and it takes practice, but it's worth it. Using Pocket Money Cards as a central focus at a weekly family update meeting can help. Try it and see.