Who decides how kids use phones?
Should it be Big Tech, the government or parents?
In the first episode of Citizen Common, we talk to a policy campaigner, a parent and a journalist with different views about who gets to decide when and how children use smartphones.
Listen to the full discussion here.
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According to Ofcom, by the age of 11, nine in ten children in the UK have their own mobile phone. As of April this year, more than a quarter of 3-7 year olds, and around two-thirds of 8-11 years old have a phone, many of whom use messaging apps and social media. But should young children have access to smartphones, and who decides?
In this edition of the Citizen Common, we speak to Andy Burrows, who is a tech accountability campaigner and advisor to the Molly Rose Foundation, which is a charity that works towards suicide prevention for young people.
Andy has been calling for a new Online Safety Act, and for the government to put in place stricter regulation to protect young people. He thinks the current legislation is inadequate.
We speak to Chris, father of 11 year old twins, who has decided his children would not have personal smartphones until they are 18 regardless of what the regulator decides.
Finally, we have some observations from our journalist Sabrina Provenzani, who has been reporting on the subject for some months now and sees parents taking matters into their own hands due to mistrust in Big Tech and the government.
