I found myself shouting at the television last night, as I watched the dying embers of the News at 10 switch to regional coverage. A Head Teacher in East Sussex was reported to be ‘urging’ parents to put down their phones and talk to their children during the drop off and collection points each day (BBC news).

My slight overreaction was partly to question whether or not such an utterance from the Head of an infant school really qualified as ‘news’. And secondly, I was frustrated with the need to even make the argument in the first place.

Surely, I found myself saying, everyone knows that a little love and attention, not to mention the odd question about the day ahead, is a good thing for child development? Do parents not realise that the little piece of tech, which seems to have been superglued to their hands for much of the past decade, is the reason we have increasing levels of mental health disorders in young people? And, clearly you don’t need to be an economist to appreciate the opportunity cost of watching just one more funny cat video on Tiktok adds up to a tidal wave of missed social interactions and development opportunities that cumulatively have enormous and far-reaching positive benefits for children.

Ever the optimist, I am, however, buoyed by the prospect of a growing wave of anti-phone rhetoric emerging from researchers, parent groups and, of course, schools. Readers of this blog may have heard me wax lyrical about Professor Jonathan Haidt’s book, ‘The Anxious Generation’, but I was also recently alerted by one of our Prep colleagues to a grass-roots movement called, ‘Smartphone Free Childhood’ which is calling for parents to fight back against the pervasive rise of tech.

Earlier this year, the UK government took significant steps to protect children from the negative impacts of mobile phones. As of February 2024, new guidance has been issued to prohibit the use of mobile phones in schools across England during the school day (UK Parliamentary papers). A few months earlier, the government also passed landmark legislation requiring social media companies to curb the spread of illegal content and protect children from potentially harmful material (Evening Standard).

These small but significant nudges are starting to change the narrative about phone use. I am aware of an increasing number of parents who understand the consequences of unfiltered access to social media and the internet, who want to find alternatives to the existing status quo and are responsive to the idea of legislative changes. The tide is turning in this debate and perhaps the story of the Head from East Sussex is part of a shifting Overton window and that my outburst at the TV last night was a sign that I need to keep up with it.

David Paton is Head of Radnor House Sevenoaks