Reducing smartphone harms in law ‘relies on process, not one big bang event’

Reducing smartphone harms in law relies on a “process”, not one “big bang” event, a Labour MP has said.

Josh MacAlister warned that children are “moving less, smiling less, learning less” as a result of increased smartphone and social media use, including in the classroom.

He introduced the Protection of Children (Digital Safety and Data Protection) Bill for its second reading in the Commons on Friday, which if passed would instruct UK chief medical officers to publish advice for parents on the use of smartphones and social media by children.

It would also compel ministers to say within a year whether they plan to raise the age at which children can consent for their data to be shared without parental permission.

Mr MacAlister had originally planned for his private member’s Bill to include a ban on smartphones in school classrooms and playgrounds, but this was dropped so his draft new law could “secure explicit Government backing”.

The MP for Whitehaven and Workington told the Commons he began his career as a teacher in 2009 when “there was the odd phone in the classroom, the odd instance of a child being bullied through their device”.

He said: “Neither I nor any other teacher at the time could have imagined the impact these devices would come to play in childhood.”

Mr MacAlister told MPs that the average 12-year-old spends 21 hours a week on their smartphone, “that’s the equivalent of four full days of school teaching per week”, and added: “This is a fundamental rewiring of childhood itself and it’s happened in little over a decade.

“Children are spending less time outside, less time reading, less time exercising, exploring, meeting people, communicating in person – all the things that make childhood special and the things that are necessary for healthy childhood development.

“Instead, many children now spend their time captured by addictive social media and smartphone use, often sat alone doomscrolling, being bombarded by unrealistic representations of life, communication through asynchronous large group chats rather than through looking at facial expressions, eye contact, body language, learning to interact – moving less, smiling less, learning less.”

He continued: “This rewiring of childhood has only one winner – the balance sheets of social media companies.”

Mr MacAlister referred to laws abroad which limit children’s smartphone use, including in the US state of Utah where app stores must verify users’ ages and get parental consent for minors to download apps to their devices, and Australia, which introduced a smartphone ban in its public schools last year.

The MP described a “stark difference” in the conversations which MPs are having, compared with discussions in public among parents and children, adding: “The public are well ahead of politicians on this issue.”

Sir Ashley Fox, the Conservative MP for Bridgwater, intervened in Mr MacAlister’s speech and said: “Nothing he has said so far requires legislation.

“The Bill he’s brought today could all be achieved by a minister just deciding to ask the chief medical officer to produce a report or the minister to produce a plan.

“What has happened to the legislative action that was clearly in earlier drafts in his legislation?”

Mr MacAlister later addressed Sir Ashley’s point in his speech, when he said: “This Bill has been drafted to secure explicit Government backing.

“It’s been written to achieve change rather than just highlight the issue.

“That is why the Bill before us is narrower than where I started when this campaign began six months ago.”

He went on to say: “We must act on excessive screen time today in the same way we acted on smoking back then, and like debates that were had on smoking and car seatbelts, it took a process of legislation rather than one ‘big bang’ event.

“That’s why starting today with these initial steps and then following them through with major action soon will be so important.”