Children’s mental health is being “hit hard” by smartphones, teachers and doctors warned at a community event this week.

At the Smartphone Free Childhood meeting, hosted at the BOSC Pavilion on Thursday, November 6, headteachers, clinicians and parents described a surge in anxiety, attention problems and online harm among schoolchildren, and called for urgent national action to limit smartphone use in childhood.

Consultant paediatrician Dr Louise Milne, from Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, said the statistics were deeply concerning.

She reported that around 82 per cent of 10 to 12 year olds in the UK now own a smartphone, and about 30 per cent of six- to seven year olds already have one. Teenagers aged 11 to 16, she said, pick up their phones up to 50 times a day, receive an average of 237 notifications, and some 12-year-olds spend nearly 30 hours a week on their devices.

She added that 51 per cent of 11 to 13 year olds have viewed pornography online, more than half of them accidentally, while three in four 15 year olds have seen beheading videos.

Dr Milne said that in the past decade, hospital admissions for self-harm among girls aged 10 to 14 have tripled, and referrals for childhood anxiety and depression are at record levels.

Headteacher Sarah Oliver, from Rowledge CofE Primary School, said she had seen a marked change in her pupils’ wellbeing during her 10 years in the role.

“The children aren’t able to attend in the way they used to, their attention is much lower. Their anxiety is increasing, and their ability to regulate is decreasing,” she said.

“There are lots of reasons for this, but I truly believe smartphones are impacting our children.”

She added that children are becoming “addicted before they even have a phone”, because they mirror adult behaviour.

“We’re showing them our phones at the dinner table, so their dopamine is being hit from a very young age. They see phones as the route to all happiness, and that’s deeply worrying.”

Ms Oliver described a recent safeguarding case that shocked her.

“I recently had a situation where a Year 6 boy was persuaded — almost, luckily it didn’t happen — to break his own toes by a groomer online, as he was in his bedroom,” she said.

“A wonderful family who gave their child all the right messages, but he was on his phone alone in his bedroom and he made a friend who wanted him to break his toes.”

Nancy Stuart-Bruges, regional co-ordinator of Smartphone Free Childhood, said some Hampshire schools were already taking decisive action.

“Nine secondary schools in Hampshire have a ‘brick-phone-only’ policy.

“We have some wonderful schools that are leading the way, and the fantastic thing is they are talking to each other, so I’m putting heads in touch with each other and changing things for this generation of children.”

She said smartphones were given to children before experts knew the harm they could cause, but it’s not too late to change.

The discussion was convened and chaired by Farnham and Bordon MP Gregory Stafford.

“I am concerned about the impact smartphones are having on children’s mental and social health,” he said.

He reported that a growing number of constituents were contacting him about this issue, asking what action schools and politicians were taking.

Advice to parents included keeping devices out of children’s bedrooms at night, giving children ‘brick’ phones instead of smartphones, and not giving phones as gifts, as experts said it should be access, not ownership.

Dr Milne closed her presentation with a quote from the author C.S. Lewis: “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”