Turn off your own phones, parents told

PARENTS should lead by example and moderate their own time on social media if they want their children to do the same, the Education Secretary said yesterday.

Damian Hinds urged mothers and fathers to ‘put their phones away’ to show youngsters that ‘restricting screen time is a good thing’.

He said families need to spend more time together without constant social media ‘distractions’ and revealed his own children, aged nine, seven and five, do not have mobile phones but do have access to two e-readers so they can read digital books.

Mr Hinds told a Church of England schools conference yesterday: ‘We are saying spend time together – that does also involve grown-ups putting their phones away.’