Only 3% of UK 12-year-olds don’t have a smartphone. Here is how four of them feel about it

There has been a huge wave of parental concern about smartphones this year. So do kids without them feel deprived – or more alive?

Nothing has been able to stop smartphones taking over our lives and those of our children. But the inevitable backlash is in full flow. It’s not only about family arguments over screen-time restrictions, or the often futile efforts of parents to minimise exposure to adult, radicalising or consumerist content. With the rising perception that phones are addictive and interfere with children’s learning, creativity and concentration, and with more than 97% of 12-year-olds owning a smartphone, schools have been taking action. In February, the UK government issued guidance on smartphones and some schools have since banned them.

Also in February, two concerned parents created the WhatsApp group Smartphone Free Childhood. The online community now has more than 120,000 members, “with a local group in every county in the UK and thousands of school groups within those”, according to the co-founder, Daisy Greenwell.

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