We MUST do this! Now TV’s Dr Ciara backs the Mail’s call for age limits on smartphones

Broadcaster says child smartphone ban CAN be done – and is needed to support parents

ONE of the country’s most high-profile doctors has backed the Irish Daily Mail’s call for a legal age limit on smartphones.

Broadcaster Dr Ciara Kelly said under-16s should not be allowed to own the devices and that the State needs to enact legislation to support parents.

She told the Mail a ban was necessary because so many young children were being exposed to pornography and bullying due to smartphones.

She also rubbished the notion that educating children was the way to make them safe online.

‘Education is one of the tools in the armoury, but it’s not enough: that’s why I have come around to the idea that we need to do more,’ she said. ‘That’s why I think we should have the age of digital consent at 16, that’s why I think we should ban smartphones until kids are 16.’

Dr Kelly added: ‘You have a situation at the moment where kids are getting smartphones at eight. I have an eight-year-old and kids in his class are getting them. I don’t think it’s good enough and I don’t think it’s safe either. I’m concerned for my kids, for kids in general. I know from talking ‘Action’: Dr Ciara Kelly to parents that I have been the GP of, and from talking to parents, that it is a very young age that kids are looking at porn. It’s primary schools. We need to be more on top of this, we need to parent, but we need support from the State.’

Dr Kelly also rubbished claims, made by some experts in the field, that a ban would not be workable.

‘I don’t agree that just because it’s difficult to do, that we shouldn’t be doing it,’ she said. ‘We implemented a ban on smoking below 16, a ban on consuming alcohol below 18.

‘We say we can’t implement these things and that the difficulty would be in implementing it, but I don’t think that’s true because I think if it became the norm, if all kids were subject to it, it would be fine.’ And she also dismissed the argument that a ban should not be brought in because some children would ignore it.

‘The fact that some kids do drink under the age of 18 is not a reason for us to lower the age of drinking,’ she said.

Dr Kelly has four children of her own and says she understands why a law would be welcomed by most.

‘I have no difficulty in saying no to my kids: I have two in primary who don’t have phones and two in secondary school who do,’ she said.

‘However, I do think that one of the things that would assist parents would be having a State policy on this.’

And she said that even if some children flouted the ban, the majority would be protected. ‘People will say kids will push it,’ she said. ‘But if you did make it 16, they wouldn’t push it until maybe first year.’

‘I have deep and grave concerns about the whole issue and I think we need to step up and stand up and be a bit braver,’ she said. ‘I think it [an age restriction on ownership] would give parents the backup they need. If we had some State backing as to what the limits are, it would back parents up. Things like communion money being spent on smartphones just wouldn’t happen.’

And Dr Kelly added: ‘I think parents are naive about these things. I don’t blame parents at all. They don’t have the skills; they don’t have the education. They knew how to parent their kids in the real world that they grew up in, but they don’t know how to parent their children in terms of the cyber world because it’s new. They don’t have that experience of it themselves. It’s not their fault.’

Dr Kelly’s intervention will increase the pressure on TDs to act on a smartphone ban for children, which has been supported by abuse survivors Fiona Doyle and Shaneda Daly as well as scores of school principals.

Three national opinion polls have also shown a clear majority in favour of smartphone age limits.

And the Mail has received 400 signed copies of our petition calling for age limits, with almost 1,000 more having signed the online version of the petition which can be found at the Change.org website.

Comment – Page 14 catherine.fegan@dailymail.ie