Paloma Faith: Why I won't give my kids smartphones

Paloma Faith has said her eight-year-old has stopped begging her for a smartphone now she’s installed a landline that her child can use to prank call her friends.

- HOLLY BANCROFT

The singer and mother-of-two is one of a growing number of celebrities who have today put their name to a 100,000-strong movement of parents committed to giving their children a smartphone-free childhood.

Backing the campaign, she said: “I actually allowed my children to occasionally look at my smartphone and that was fine for a time as I’m a single mum, and sometimes needs must. But when I took it away, the difference was instant.

“They slept better, they were more focussed, more imaginative and much better company – no tantrums, no disasters, just a brilliant childhood. My eight-year-old was begging me for one over and over, and when I installed a landline she stopped entirely.

“Now she loves prank calling all my friends just as I did when I was eight. I’m glad she won’t be littered with all the superficial rubbish that a smartphone will bring in her teen years too.”