This is what happened when a group of children gave up their mobile phones

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At the beginning of the new school year, 12-year-old Liana agreed to give up her phone for three whole weeks. There would be no Snapstreaks, no Whatsapp messages and no TikTok videos. 

Ahead of putting her phone in a locked box, the Year 8 student admitted: ‘I wouldn’t say I’m addicted to it, but it’s one of my main priorities.What I’m worried about with this phone ban is losing trends and stuff.

‘If you’re boring, people won’t want to be friends with you.’

The consequences of the phone-free social experiment Liana took part in, alongside 25 classmates at Stanway School in Essex, is the topic of Channel 4’s new show Swiped: The School that Banned Smartphones, hosted by TV presenters Emma and Matt Willis. 

Initially, the children were agitated without their phones. ‘I’ve just put my life in there, it’s completely gone,’ Harry, 11, said dramatically as he dropped his mobile into the locked box at his school. Soon, the Year 8 students were feeling the impact of a life without the quick-hit dopamine buzz they usually got from a phone. 

One pupil said he had been forced to read a book ‘as a last resort’, while another was seen aimlessly hitting some grass with a stick. Another felt ‘traumatised’ at losing his device. Things reach boiling point in Episode 2, when one pupil struggles to go to bed without his online comforts.

In solidarity with the Stanway School children, Emma and Matt also gave up their phones, which caused the Busted star to be ‘20 minutes late to everything’ as a result of losing Google Maps.

Emma, who attended the National Television Awards just hours after giving up her phone, said she felt isolated and ‘like I’m not in control of my own life anymore.’ 

Children left to feel 'stupid' about online harms

In an emotive scene in Swiped, 12-year-old Jessica recalled how she was overjoyed to make an 11-year-old female friend on TikTok. But when the stranger began to ask ‘funny’ questions about photos and personal life, she took a step back from the friendship. The ‘friend’ responded by making a ‘full blown hate page’ about Jessica, then 10, on TikTok.

Before receiving a hug from Emma Willis, the schoolgirl said she felt ‘stupid’ at being taken advantage of. She explained: ‘One time I was on a Facetime call and she was showing me the screen on her iPad. But then the iPad died and the screen went black. In the reflection I could see someone holding a phone, someone who definitely wasn’t an 11-year-old girl. I don’t know if it was a man or a woman, but I suspect it was a man.’

In one scene in Swiped, Matt reflects on his drug abuse and how his phone-use compared. ‘The word addiction gets bandied about quite a lot when it comes to phones, and I found that a bit weird from somebody who is a recovering drug addict,’ he says. ‘But I am addicted to my phone, because when I’m without it I crave it and when I’m not on it I think about it.’

On the show, Matt and Emma also meet with Jenna, who lost her 13-year-old son Bradley to suicide in 2018 after he viewed extreme content online.

‘There was a video of a YouTuber who had gone into a suicide forest. It had some quite graphic images in there,’ Jenna tells the couple. ‘He would obsess about things so I think the concept of suicide became one of those interests to him. That video was uploaded at the end of the year and Brad died on January 10.’

Alarmingly, frequent social media use has been found to increase a child’s risk of depression by 27%. One in four children now use their phones in a way which resembles behavioural addiction, warns Rangan Chatterjee, a doctor who appears with Matt and Emma in Swiped. 

‘We’re sleepwalking into a mental health crisis,’ Dr Rangan tells Metro at a press screening for the show. ‘This isn’t just about the content these children are consuming online such as violent pornography, but also about what their phones are doing to them physically, in terms of things like sleep and anxiety. I think we are failing our children collectively as a society. 

‘I am not blaming parents when I say that, I really believe they are doing the best they can. We need to really think about which aspects of technology are healthy and which ones are harmful.’

During the experiment at Stanway School, University of York researchers monitored how the children’s behaviour shifted. Each participant had to carry out a series of cognitive tasks which tested their attention, reaction times and memory before and after giving up their phones.

One key difference noted was, after 21 days with no phones, that the children reported an hour extra of sleep each night. Professor Lisa Henderson, researcher at the University of York, described the social experiment as ‘first-of-its kind.’ 

As the show progressed, the researchers witnessed the participants adapt to life without their phones and enjoy less pressure in their day to day lives. Matt found he was creating more music and has now banned phones in his recording studio, he revealed.

Reflecting on the experiment, Dr Rangan has urged others – young and old – to consider giving up their phones at certain times. He adds: ‘It’s not only directly affecting our children’s mental health, but society as a whole. If our kids aren’t well, no-one is well.

We’ve seen that half of children have accessed violent pornography on a screen by the age of 13. How will their sense of sex and intimacy be shaped by what they’ve seen online? What does that mean in 10 or 20 years time when these children are in their 30s? What are the implications there?’

Swiped’s creators explore whether the two-part show could ‘be the catalyst’ for a nationwide ban on smartphones for children under 14 or 16 years old, an idea currently opposed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Emotive reaction to early screening

At the press screening for Swiped, phones were described as ‘dangerous’ by Channel 4’s head of news and current affairs, while Emma Willis was reduced to tears when she recounted the story of Bradley’s suicide. Attendees were also encouraged to place their own phones in a box during the screening to immerse themselves in the show.

Meanwhile, Dr Rangan received a thunderous round of applause after he made an impassioned plea for government to do something about social media and smartphones. 

Speaking about the devastating consequences smartphone addiction can have, he explained: ‘Studies show they [children who are addicted to their phones] are losing grey matter which controls how the brain processes information and makes decisions. This pattern is similar to what we see in people with substance abuse or addiction problems.’

While controlling children’s phone use may feel like running for a train that has already left the station, Dr Rangan is optimistic things can improve. He says we should encourage children to embrace boredom, as being forced to to be ‘present’ with thoughts can improve self-esteem, relationships and creativity.

Dr Rangan adds: ‘There are certainly challenges ahead but I think if we prejudge the situation and go “well there’s nothing we can do then”, then nothing will change. Let’s be positive about this.

‘Things can start with general principles like home, like phone free meal times or having children’s phones downstairs overnight.

‘I think we can get things back on track, we can rewire our children’s brains.’

Watch Swiped: The School That Banned Smartphones on Channel 4 on Wednesday, December 11 at 8pm.

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