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Here’s why we need to rethink kids + tech

Dear reader,

I am a mother of two teenagers and I have been looking around me, reading about kids and screens and worrying. I have a lot of conversations with fellow parents about our kids and their tech, which follow a similar pattern of compare, despair, fail to find a solution and then talk about something else. I want this to change. And I wish I’d never given my kids smartphones. But everyone else has them, right?

What you need to know - quick links to alarming information here: Addiction, Pornography & Relationships, Mental Health, Schools & Learning, Babies & Young Children, Physical Health, Gaming, Silicon Valley Parents (i.e. what those in the know are doing) and Algorithms & Fake News.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead

Yours,
Miranda Wilson

Welcome

If your child has a smartphone, or you are thinking of buying them one, you’re in the right place. The effects of smartphones on children is what this site concentrates on, but much of the same applies across laptops, iPads, video games and VR.

According to a recent report (Childwise 2021), 5-16 year olds spend on average 3.8 hours a day online, half of 5-10 year olds now have their own smart phone and all children are increasingly going online in their bedrooms.

So what’s the problem?

Pre-teens ‘lose a night’s sleep per week to social media’


Roughly 70% of the children involved in a study said that they used social media for four hours or more a day, with most saying this included the two hours just before bedtime. About 13 per cent admitted that they frequently checked their apps “in the middle of the night or after I should be asleep”, with TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat being the most popular.

The Times, September 2022

 
 

And here is a summary, from a research article into problematic smartphone use by BMC Psychiatry.

“Approximately 1 in 4 children and young people demonstrate problematic smartphone use, a pattern of behaviour that mirrors that of a behavioural addiction. A consistent relationship has been demonstrated between problematic smart phone use and deleterious mental health symptoms including: depression; anxiety; high levels of perceived stress; and poor sleep.

Younger populations are more vulnerable to psychopathological developments, and harmful behaviours and mental health conditions established in childhood can shape the subsequent life course.”

You could argue that we are sleepwalking into a large-scale social experiment, to which none of us have consciously agreed. Least of all our kids. Add multiple lockdowns and school closures into the mix and we’ve a perfect situation for risking their wellbeing. 

 What are they seeing and what are the effects?

Easy access, often violent, online porn leading to the proliferation of rape culture in schools (read more about phones in school here). Self-harm content on social media, algorithms that lead them to increasingly extreme content, lack of sleep due to devices in bedrooms and the knock-on effect on academic performance and mental health, loss of innocence, reduced language and social skills, increased obesity and so on. And yes, this won’t be the case for all children, but it also shouldn’t be the case for any. That’s why we need a culture change around what’s acceptable and at what age.  

 Why has this happened?

We’ve let tech organisations monetise our children’s attention and our children are paying the price. In case you’re curious to know which organisations are profiting from our children’s attention and what the figures are, here are the estimated 2021 revenues of some of our children’s favourite platforms according to Business of Apps

Your children are being monetised

  • TikTok £1.71billion

  • Instagram $47.6billion

  • SnapChat £4.1billion

  • YouTube $28.8billion

“…unlike other addictions that are opposed by mainstream institutions, screen time is being pushed by educators, governments and businesses. Not a chance we can kick it the way things are currently organized.”

Globe Opinion’s Discuss conversation between Dr Norman Doidge and Jim Balsillie, READ HERE IN FULL.

Many kids now don’t know the names of common trees, birds or flowers. If you can name something, you are more likely to look after it.  

Peer pressure

I know it’s hard to say no to buying your child a phone when all their friends have them. And it’s hard to instil boundaries once they do have a phone, especially with teenagers. It’s also difficult to have conversations with other parents about what’s happening in their homes. And if you don’t have those conversations, how do you know what to say to your kids when they claim you are excessively strict compared with their friends’ parents? And what happens during sleepovers? Does anybody know what anybody else is up to?  

The tech insider’s view

Watch this TED Talk by ex-Google employee, Tristan Harris

HOW A HANDFUL OF TECH COMPANIES CONTROL BILLIONS OF MINDS EVERY DAY

In it, he says: “I don't know a more urgent problem than this because this problem is underneath all other problems. It's not just taking away our agency... it's changing the way we have our conversations, it's changing our democracy... and it affects everyone.” 

Gus Speth, environmental lawyer and former UN administrator articulates a similar point, through the lens of the environment:

“I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystems collapse and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address those problems. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy… and to deal with those we need a spiritual and cultural transformation and we, (Lawyers) and scientists, don’t know how to do that.” 

Watch This

Where do I go now?

You’ll find quick links here to our issues pages. There is a lot of negative information here, because I’ve decided to flag up the issues for parents and carers who ultimately have the most influence on children.

Got something to add to the conversation? Please contact me on info@teched-off.com