Nothing has been able to stop smartphones taking over our lives and those of our children. But the inevitable backlash is in full flow. It’s not only about family arguments over screen-time restrictions, or the often futile efforts of parents to minimise exposure to adult, radicalising or consumerist content. With the rising perception that phones are addictive and interfere with children’s learning, creativity and concentration, and with more than 97% of 12-year-olds owning a smartphone, schools have been taking action. In February, the UK government issued guidance on smartphones and some schools have since banned them.
Also in February, two concerned parents created the WhatsApp group Smartphone Free Childhood. The online community now has more than 120,000 members, “with a local group in every county in the UK and thousands of school groups within those”, according to the co-founder, Daisy Greenwell.
But what do the pioneering minority of smartphone-free children make of all this?
Annabel, 13
I’m the only person I know who doesn’t have a smartphone. I know they’re quite addictive. Some of my friends are on Snapchat a lot – one of them has a three-hour screen-time limit on her phone and she uses up the whole thing with Snapchat. Some of my other friends, when we’re together, scroll on TikTok or YouTube, and I feel quite left out.
Sometimes my friends communicate with people they haven’t met before from a different school, so I think social media is a good way of finding people. But it also has negatives, because you can come into contact with people you don’t want to speak with, although I don’t know anyone who has been bullied online. If there’s a person they don’t know, they usually block them.
One of the positives is that I’m more connected to my friends in the real world, and I’m on some WhatsApp groups on my mum’s phone, which helps me connect with, say, the class group chat.
I do feel like having a smartphone would distract me from other things. On social media, everyone is like: “You need to get this beauty blush or that moisturiser.” And like: “Oh, I get this because someone on TikTok claims it’s good.” Then the next week, everyone’s like: “Oh, you’ve got this moisturiser, that’s so old.” If you see your friends know all the new trends, it shows that they’re quite addicted to it. I spent a lot of time learning guitar and singing this summer and I don’t think I would have done that if I’d had a smartphone.
At school we have the Yondr programme, where you have to lock your phone in a pouch. If you are caught with your phone out, you get a detention. There are some people who are so addicted that they can’t even lock it away for five hours of the day. But a lot of people won’t have their phones out and you can actually have a conversation with them.
Henry, 11
I got a smartphone when I turned 11 and then my mum took it away, because she said my attitude got a lot worse when I’d been looking at it and it caused arguments. She’d tell me to stop and then I wouldn’t stop, because I wanted to complete this level of a game, or finish talking to my friends.
The games on my phone were fun, but the main thing is not being able to contact my friends during the holidays. I can’t talk to my friends at all. My mum says she’ll get me a Nokia, but we haven’t got it yet.
I think I partly agree with my mum about being nicer when I don’t have the phone. Not having it, you just don’t ever think about it. I have two younger brothers and often one of them would sneak away with my phone and search up videos and stuff and play games that I had. That would cause arguments between us.
The only reason I don’t want a really simple phone is because I use WhatsApp a lot and all my friends have it. I was invited into quite a few big WhatsApp groups, but because I wasn’t allowed to use my phone very much, I would always end up deleting them because I had so many messages.
I think I would use a Nokia if my mum gets me one, because often, if I walk home from school and my mum and dad are out when I get back, it’s a real pain if I have no way of communicating. The one thing that I would say to them is: if you want to restrict me, make it harder for me to go around it. I got the password by asking them to do it and then just looking over their shoulder.
Jack, 13
I didn’t want a smartphone. From what I’ve seen with my parents, it just seems kind of annoying; constant pinging. All I want a phone for is contacting my parents and friends, so I’ve got an old Nokia.
Sometimes I do feel a bit left out without WhatsApp and Snapchat, but then actually seeing what is there, it just seems kind of annoying and like nothing interesting is happening. They’re just sending random stuff to each other.
I have a different sense of humour to everyone else; some of the things on social media, it completely amazes me how that is amusing. I think some people genuinely find it funny, but I can definitely pick out people who are just going along with it.
I am the only one among my friends without a smartphone. People always seem quite confused when I say that I don’t want one. Some adults say: “That’s good,” but not my friends and other people my age. I’m pretty good at avoiding bullies, so I haven’t had people pick on me because of it.
I read quite a lot. I’m probably one of the most advanced at reading in my year. I don’t know if it has anything to do with it, but maybe I’m reading in the evenings, when other people will be looking at their phones.
Mikey, 11
I haven’t got a smartphone, because my parents think there are too many dangers. I don’t know what they are; they won’t tell me. I think they should at least tell me what the dangers are.
Without a smartphone, I’ll be missing a chance to be able to send my friends photos of life-changing experiences, and being able to FaceTime someone and see them in real life. My friends still call me, but they don’t really talk to me as much any more. They talk to people on WhatsApp a lot now.
I don’t think most of my friends are addicted to their phones. I think they’re just at the right age to get one. That’s the reason I’m quite annoyed. I am convinced that between the end of year 6 and the beginning of year 7 is a good time to have one. I don’t think it’s dangerous for a child to have one past year 6. We’re mature – you start picking your GCSEs in year 8.
I accepted not having one for a bit, but then loads of my friends got a smartphone. I just feel really left out. Fear of missing out – that’s one of the main reasons I’m upset about it.