Can the dream of smartphone-free kids come true?

Experts believe that phone-based childhoods are seriously harming mental health and parents are fighting back says Emily Phillips

- Emily Phillips

JUST two months ago, Daisy Greenwell reached a point at which she had to decide: would she give her eight-year-old daughter a smartphone, or make her "the weird one" without a mobile? "I thought this Wild West internet problem would be sorted by the time she got to this age," Greenwell says.

"And suddenly I realised her classmates had smartphones. We don't want to get her one and I didn't know what to do about it." Greenwell is not alone. A London headteacher this week announced plans to introduce a 12-hour school day in a bid to tackle pupils' smartphone addiction.

A poll last month suggested the overwhelming majority of parents back aban on smartphones for under-16s. And 83 per cent of people surveyed by Parentkind felt that smartphone use was harmful to children and young people.

"I kept talking to people, asking how they feel about it and everyone said the same thing: there's basically no choice, I had to get her a phone," says Greenwell, 40, a journalist at Positive News.