'Parents, ignore your phones. Our children need to have better scroll models'

19 July 2023 , 19:23

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Children can't look away from their screens (Image: Getty Images)

It’s one of my biggest ­bugbears as a parent – my children being glued to their mobile devices. Trying to get so much as a nod when their faces are inches from their screens is a miracle, such is the ­influence of tech gadgets.

Attempting to assert any control over screen time has led to full-blown arguments and threats (which they know I’d never carry out) to throw the wifi-router in the bin.

But now I have hard evidence to hit them with. Scientists have discovered that too much time on mobile phones can seriously damage relationships.

Researchers in Turkey looked into the effects of phubbing – snubbing others while on the phone – and found that married couples who engaged in the ­practice were unhappier in their relationships.

It follows a study from 2021 that revealed “phubbers” were more likely to have certain mental health issues.

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The TV presenter Susanna Reid tried to take decisive action on intrusive mobile phones – she banned them from the dinner table.

Under her rules, her sons aren’t allowed on their devices while they’re eating. The problem is, as she herself confessed yesterday, she often breaks her own rules by checking her messages, her excuse being it’s work related.

Her fed-up kids have told her: “There’s always a reason. There should never be a reason at the dinner table. Off your phone.”

I’ve found myself in the same hypocritical ­situation. After enforcing my own gadget ban, I often can’t resist the ping of a text. I feel if I don’t respond right away, I’ll forget altogether.

I know my younger son, who’s eight, finds it especially unfair that I impose limits when it seems to him I’m never off my phone. My excuse is I’m reading the news to which he’ll respond: “No you’re not, you’re on Instagram”.

He’s usually right. He even asked his teacher if he could “tell me off” for being on my phone all the time.

Now we have scientific proof about the impact on our relationships, I’m going to try to be much better at abiding by my own edicts.

After all, who needs to watch another cat video on YouTube when I can listen to my child moan, for the umpteenth time, about how it was so unfair that he wasn’t picked to be playground line leader!

Eva Simpson