This is it really so bad for children to have smartphones? Attention, operates. This spring, the world feels different now. A dystopian masterpiece. This is big brother.

Becomes a reality. Time to finally do this.

Winston, I'm scared.

George Orwell's 1984, starring Andrew Garfield, Cynthia. 1984. Listen now only on audible. Subscription required, see audible.co. UK for terms. It's a question no modern parents can avoid. Should I give my child a phone?

Everyone else at school has one, and don't you need your child to be able to contact you in an

emergency but increasingly alarm bells are ringing about just what it's doing to

children to have unfettered access to this powerful addictive

technology at such a crucial time in their development. If you put a smartphone

into your child's life this thing is designed to grab your child's attention and never let go.

It's a debate that's been rumbling on at dinner tables and school gates for quite a few years now.

But it's the anxious generation,

a best-selling book by an American social psychologist

called Jonathan Hight,

which has really catapulted the issue to the top of the news and political agenda.

Something happened to young people born after 1995.

All of a sudden in the early 2010s, their mental health collapsed, rates of anxiety and depression skyrocketed,

self-harm is up 150% for younger teen girls, suicide is up 50%.

My argument in the book is...

Height is telling parents not to give children smartphones before they go to high school

and to ban them from social media until they're 16.

He says there is a clear connection between plummeting teen mental health and the rise of

smartphones, but many scientists remain unconvinced about linking the two.

...