The advent of the affordable cell phone has given parents a new way to stay in touch with their children, but it has also sparked countless discussions about screen time, safety and social media.
As concerns about phone use grow – and the age at which children get their first mobile phone continues to decline – countries around the world are weighing up how to tackle the problem at school and at home.
The panacea has not been found anywhere, but action plans are being put forward and solutions are being proposed, from strict legislation to grassroots action.
As Australia and Spain prepare to test tough laws to tackle the problem, our correspondents examine some of the most notable screen time solutions.
Australia: ‘Ensuring that children have a childhood‘
Australia made global headlines in November when parliament passed a law banning young people under the age of 16 from social media. But much of how it will work and which services it will apply to remains unclear.
While some states in Australia are banning the use of mobile phones at school, the federal government’s new ban at the end of this year will completely restrict children under the age of 16 from social media. The legislation will give the Communications Minister the power to determine which platforms will be restricted, but it is widely expected to apply at least to Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
YouTube is expected to be exempt based on the educational benefits it claims to provide.
The legislation puts the responsibility for checking ages on the platforms, saying they must take “reasonable steps” to check ages or face fines of A$50 million (£25 million). A trial of the technology is currently underway, but it is believed that the final version could include the use of facial age estimation, account behavior monitoring to determine ages, and possibly the use of existing authentication services.
The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has said the ban is aimed at ensuring “children have a childhood”. The aim, he added, was to get them “playing outside with their friends – from their phones to the football and cricket pitches, the tennis and netball courts, in the swimming pool and trying any sport that piques their interest ”.
Josh Taylor, Melbourne
Spain: ‘You can use ours‘
The Socialist-led Spanish coalition government is preparing legislation that would raise the age for opening a social media account from 14 to 16 and calls on technology companies to install age verification systems.
It also proposes that parental controls be installed as standard on smartphones and that a national education campaign be rolled out to help children and teens navigate social media.
An expert committee recently called on the government to consider adding a warning label to digital devices sold in Spain, to inform consumers about the health risks associated with social media and digital devices.
In the autumn of 2023, parents in the Poblenou district of Barcelona started a WhatsApp group in which they agreed to postpone the age at which they gave their children a phone. Their initiative, Adolescence Libre de Móviles (mobile-free adolescence) quickly spread across Catalonia and other parts of Spain as families united around the idea of not giving their children a phone until they are 16.
“Every year that you can postpone giving a phone is a big victory, because more than 72% of Spanish children have a smartphone by the age of 12,” said Núria González-Rojas, spokesperson for the project.
A parent group in the Basque Country called Altxa Burua (heads up) has piloted a plan to delay the age at which children get cell phones, enlisting the help of families, schools and local businesses. The project, which started two years ago in the city of Tolosa, aims to debunk the well-known argument that children need phones for emergencies and to keep their parents informed of their movements. To this end, shops in Tolosa have window stickers on display invite children to use their phones when necessary. The stickers, in both Basque and Spanish, read: “You can use ours.”
Sam Jones, Madrid
France: ‘Taking back control of screens’
French President Emmanuel Macron ordered a report on the issue, saying the country needed to take back “control of our screens,” which locked children in themselves rather than freeing them. He said that “the future of our society and democracy” depends on a sensible approach.
The report, presented last April, states that children should not use smartphones until they are 13 and that they should not have access to conventional social media such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat until they are 18. No child should have a phone before the age of 11. , it said, and they would only be allowed to have a handset without internet access before age 13.
The experts said children must be protected from the tech industry’s profit-driven strategies, adding that screens were having a negative effect on children’s vision, sleep, metabolism, physical health and concentration.
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Macron has said ministers should “examine the recommendations and translate them into action.”
Angelique Chrisafis, Paris
Italy: School bans
The use of smartphones and tablets in Italian classrooms at primary, primary and secondary schools will be completely banned from September, even for educational purposes.
Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara said a decision had been made for educational reasons, but also because of the tension the devices had caused between students and teachers – including cases where teachers were hit with phones in response to a reprimand.
Valditara has also supported a petition calling for children under the age of 14 to be banned from owning a mobile phone and for those under the age of 16 to have social media profiles.
Angela Giuffrida, Rome
Germany: ‘The longer you can delay children’s use of smartphones, the better‘
Although German schools cannot ban students from bringing cell phones, they can prohibit them from using them in class or during breaks.
Teachers routinely exercise the right to confiscate phones deemed a problem on a case-by-case basis, but experts note that the legal basis for this is shaky. Some educators have embraced devices as part of teaching and encouraged efforts to build digital literacy among young people, including encouraging them to set limits on screen time for their well-being.
But political officials such as Schleswig-Holstein Education Minister Karin Prien have called for mobile phones to be completely banned from primary schools, citing negative effects on learning and physical health.
Thomas Fischbach, the president of the German Association of Paediatricians, has said that no child under the age of 11 should be given a smartphone, calling the devices harmful to development.
He said young brains are too vulnerable to be exposed to social media “influencers” in particular, with doctors reporting their practices are full of young internet users who have started to develop psychological problems such as chronic anxiety.
“The longer you can delay children from using smartphones, the better it is for them,” says Fischbach.
However, Germany’s federalist system has ensured that while smartphones are a source of concern and debate for most parents, calls for a national policy have not been echoed.
Deborah Cole, Berlin