There is little proof to again up your current headline that “Smartphones are hurting children’s mental health” (Opinion, March 10).

Most educational consultants — us included — have lengthy accepted that teenagers’ relationship with know-how is much extra difficult.

Smartphones are used for a lot of totally different actions. While some will trigger hurt to sure youngsters, some will probably be helpful. Indeed, a number of educational evaluations, in addition to experiences commissioned by England’s chief medical officer and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health reaffirm this stance.

The UK doesn’t have strict screen-time suggestions largely as a result of the affect of units is determined by their use and person. Yet this nuance has been ignored in favour of blaming applied sciences: generational scapegoats for societal considerations in regards to the younger.

In the Nineteen Forties, analysis and media had been fearful about kids’s habit to the radio. Their focus then moved on to TV, video video games and now social media.

Simplistic narratives distract from advanced networks of socio-economic, worldwide, political and way of life components (together with, sure, know-how use) that result in poor psychological well being outcomes. To design rules and suggestions match for objective we have to take this complexity into consideration.

While panics about fashionable applied sciences proceed, we can’t have the required pragmatic discussions about how you can hold children protected on-line.

Dr Amy Orben
Psychologist, University of Cambridge

Tom Metherell
PhD Student, University College London