Digitox your family...

It might seem like an impossible task but you can cut back on technology for happier, healthier kids – not to mention mum and dad!

FATHER-OF-FOUR Mark Ellis watched as his children argued about what to watch on TV, while the family’s Wii was creating more rows upstairs.

It’s a familiar scene in homes across the UK. But few would probably do what he did next. Sick of technology tearing his family apart, Mark, 45, declared they were having a digital detox. He recalls: “I had a bit of a moment. I’d like to say it was a conscious plan but I just exploded. I said, ‘That’s it, we’re not going to touch the things’, stormed off and unplugged the internet. It didn’t go down well.” Mark then instigated a tech-free day on Sundays, along with a 7pm to 7am curfew every night. Experts have linked sleep deprivation in youngsters to using mobile phones and computers in bedrooms late at night, and a study by psychologists at the University of Leeds found excessive internet use is linked to depression in children and adults. A recent survey of 14 to 24-year-olds by the Royal Society for Public Health shows Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter increased feelings of anxiety and inadequacy. Research by the British Chiropractic Association has also found that smartphones are behind a rise in the number of young people with back and neck problems due to youngsters being hunched over a screen. Three years on, the Ellis family have never looked back. Technology expert and culture consultant Mark says: “We’re not a Victorian family, we’re not against ANY technology. But I don’t like the thought of addiction and I hated the idea my children were enslaved by it.” Now Mark, who lives with wife Caroline and children Ben, 18, Gabriel, 15, Jessica, 13 and seven-year-old Noah in Bicester, Oxfordshire, has written a book called Digitox on their experiences to try and help other families reduce their addiction to technology. He says: “On the first day we decided to go tech free, I was shocked. It was horrible – there were arguments, pleas for exceptions, shouting – and it left us all exhausted. Diets are tough and a digital diet is no different. “One simple benefit was that all the children started to join us walking our cocker spaniel, Shelby. “Within six weeks there was a lowering of fractious, aggravated behaviour. And not just on the tech-free day we now have.”