• A new study has found that school bans enough aren’t enough to curb excess phone use for children

• It also linked spending more time on smartphones to poorer health, wellbeing and focus outcomes

• The amount of time young people spend in front of a screen has shot up dramatically in the last few years

• An expert says having an open discussion about it in your household could make a difference

Setting rules and boundaries around screen time is something parents and children can do together.

A new study from the University of Birmingham has found that children at schools with mobile phone bans don’t do any better when it comes to sleep, exercise, classroom behaviour, or how much time they spend on their phones overall. But the study’s author told the BBC that only meant that school bans along weren’t enough to tackle the issue, with spending longer on smartphones and social media in general linked with worse results for all of those measures.

Another report from least year by Parliament’s Education Committee found that young people’s screen time has shot up in recent years, with a whopping 52% increase between 2020 and 2022. One in four children with a smartphone used it in a way that was consistent with behavioural addiction, it said.  

Brad Marshall, an expert on healthy tech habits and author of ‘How to Say No to Your Phone: An Empowering Guide for Young People’, worked with the UK’s only newspaper specifically for young people - First News - to create a guide to help parents make sure their kids have a healthy relationship with their devices. As well as covering some of the warning signs that they’re spending too much time glued to screens, he included tips for starting an open dialogue in your family.

With young people across the UK either partway through or about to start their February mid-term break, here are his recommended discussion points if you start to feel like your child’s screen time is getting out of control:

1. How do you feel after spending a lot of time on screens, like playing games or watching videos?

Whether it’s playing games or watching short-form video content like TikTok, it’s all too easy for anyone to get sucked in and spend a huge amount of time on their phone. Thinking about how it actually leaves them feeling is a good way to get young people to tune in to how their phone use might be impacting them physically and mentally.

2. What are some other things you might like to do for fun that don’t involve screens?

Whether it’s reading, baking, drawing, board games, team sports, or even a bike ride, stepping away from screens can help children connect with their peers in person, get some exercise in, and even exercise their imaginations. Chances are your child has plenty of hobbies or activities they would be interested to try, and if you can help facilitate the things they actually want to do, it could do them a world of good.

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3. How can we make screen time more balanced with other activities, like playing outside or reading?

Not only is your child probably more likely to stick to rules they’ve had a hand in creating, but they might surprise you with their perspective on the issue. Coming up with a reasonable and thought-out plan to help them find balance in their lives could help you too - after all, it’s not only young people who struggle with screen time.

This article is produced in partnership with First News, an award-winning newspaper for UK children read by 2.2 million each week. To find out more about getting First News at home or in your child’s school, or even to browse its other online offerings for young people, you can visit its website here.