Digital detox children at night, parents told

PARENTS should take smartphones off their children at night to prevent them staying up late, a technology expert has claimed.

Prof Adam Joinson of the University of Bath said everyone should “digitally detox” at night, swapping phones for alarm clocks to get a good night’s sleep.

But he said that even older teenagers could not be trusted to put their phones down at night because their brains had not developed sufficiently to realise the health implications.

Speaking at The Cheltenham Science Festival, Prof Joinson said: “Parents should take their phones off their kids at night. I do it to my nearly-17-year-old. It causes endless fights, but otherwise he would be on it all night. Young people do not have the ability until they are in their 20s to actually fully understand the consequences of actions now tomorrow. This is a basic developmental thing.

“That’s why they will stay on their phone and not think they will be exhausted tomorrow or the day after...

“Until he turns 18 I will block access to his phone. Generally I think parents are remiss if they allow their kids to have phones at night.”

Prof Joinson also warned parents against using tracking apps to monitor their children because they could be hacked by predators.

“Generally I think it is a terrible terrible idea,” he said. “Start tracking kids and we almost all know it will be hacked at some point, so you look at the Snapchat map, it’s basically a pick and mix for child predators.”