‘Impossible' to make smartphones safe for children, Sophie Winkleman warns

Independent

28-04-2025

Smartphones are 'impossible' to make safe for children and should be banned from schools, a royal family member and actress has said.
Sophie Winkleman, styled as Lady Frederick Windsor, warned phones can have physical and emotional 'consequences'.
The actress, known for playing Big Suze in Channel 4 comedy Peep Show, has previously leant to her support to a ban on under-16s from having smartphones, and was a supporter of strengthening the Online Safety Act.
'I think the impact of smartphones on children's mental and physical health is so immense and so multi-stranded that it's actually impossible to make them safe,' she said.
'They're designed by geniuses to be unputdownable,' she told an event hosted by the Policy Exchange think tank in Westminster.
'Even if a child is only watching animal videos for three hours, they're still stationary, isolated and passive.
'They're simply consuming content, open vessels for other people's garbage often for hours at a time.
'The physical consequences of this vice like addiction range from eyesight damage, spinal damage, sleep disturbance, hormone disruption, obesity and manifold neurological impairments, which include the decimation of the attention span, giving rise to various ADHD like symptoms.
'The emotional and safeguarding harms are equally multiple.'
A survey of more than 15,000 schools in England by the Children's Commissioner suggests that the vast majority already have policies in place that restrict the use of mobile phones during the school day.
The Netflix drama Adolescence, which examines so-called incel (involuntary celibate) culture, has fuelled a debate about smartphones in schools in recent weeks.
But the Government has so far resisted calls to ban phones in schools.
Also speaking at the event, independent MP Rosie Duffield, who resigned from Labour last year, said the Government should be more receptive to findings on the harm caused by smartphones in schools.
'We share evidence, research, ideas and opportunities to engage with the Government and discuss policy,' the former teaching assistant said.
'This has been surprisingly clunky and difficult given the mounting evidence of harm and the growing level of concern from individual parents and groups of parents.
'Children need us to keep up the pressure on the Government that growth from financial deals with tech firms cannot be at the expense of our children.
'More and more parents and groups are coming to talk to me about this issue.'
Ms Duffield resigned the Labour whip in September 2024, accusing the Prime Minister of 'hypocrisy' and pursuing 'cruel' policies.
Relations between the Canterbury MP and the party leadership had long been strained, particularly over transgender rights.