Call For Change
The time is now to protect our children. As our Briefing Document and the recent Education Select Committee Report show, the evidence of harms is overwhelming. As a society we cannot stand by to let this continue. We are calling for a smartphone regulatory framework that will protect our children.
In May 2024 the Education Select Committee conducted a comprehensive report on the screen time impacts of education and well being of children. This report echoes our campaign goals and we are calling on the new Government to act upon it’s recommendations.
We are calling for the introduction of a new legal framework for regulating the access of children and young people to addictive-by-design smartphones and applications. Given the strong findings of the Education Select Committee Report, the Government must be willing to commit their support for safeguarding the mental health, wellbeing and academic potential of current and future generations of children.
A smartphone regulatory framework should include at a minimum:
(a) a licensing or certification regime which restricts the sale, supply and marketing to children of smartphones and applications to those which are certified by an independent authority as meeting narrow statutory suitability and child safety conditions, and
(b) a prohibition on the sale, supply and marketing to children of addictive-by-design unrestricted smartphones and applications including social media.
This regime should apply to all children in the UK until they reach the end of Secondary School Key Stage 4, with the effect of excluding unrestricted smartphones from all primary and secondary schools.
If you want to support this call there are two urgent things you can do today:
1) Use our template to send a single email to the Secretaries of State and your MP
2) Support this call by completing our form below to help us to evidence the strength of public feeling around this issue
Complete this form to add your support
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