But is a ban really the answer . I dont think we should expect kids to use their phone less, because were not. Were not. Im not. Youre not. I dont think anyone is. On the outskirts of birmingham, 14 year old josh says he can spend up to ten hours a day on his smartphone. He messages his friends and scrolls through hundreds of tiktok videos. Its pretty much like my best friend. Like, i use it every single day. I always have to have it next to me because, like, i wont get scared that im being like, left out, or something. During the week, Joshs Mum makes him leave his smartphone downstairs at night. But at the weekend its a different story. I, like, watch My Phone throughout the night. My phone would be, like, constantly going off, which will wake me up, and then ill have to check it, just to see if im, like, missing anything important. Normally at four in the morning its not that important. Hes very tired the next day. Because hes been up all night and hes not had enough sleep. Sometime
Sometimes, even when he sl asleep you can go in and he s still holding the phone and it s still playing a tiktok video, or something. A few miles away, 13 year old keah is also rarely off her phone. When i m not at school, i probably use it, like, a lot. Like, most of the day. She scrolls through dozens of videos an hour and chats to friends and family around the country. Sometimes i stay up all night, maybe until about, like, 5am, watching tiktok or playing games, or watching netflix, or anything like that. I just scroll and scroll and scroll. It s terrible. Sometimes i ll go to my sister s and the family will meet there and she ll just go upstairs and be on her phone. And that s the time when i feel like i would like her tojust put the phone down and have her family time. Many of us are obsessed with our smartphones, but what s the impact on our kids? from looking at keah and josh s social media feeds, they re not seeing anything that s too bad. But, as the bbc s disinformation and s