Historians of the future may look on this era and speculate that the people of the early 21st century hated their own children. Hate might be too soft a word, though. Perhaps, future historians might even wonder if we had some suicidal impulse to destroy our own children.

The great untold story since the millennium is the global experiment to which we’ve subjected our own offspring via the smartphone. The story is untold because we adults are so buried in screens we seldom look up and notice what’s happening to the young.

There are changes being wrought on children today that are more like mutations in the human soul. This should scare us, shame us. Indeed, what’s happening should render vast swathes of the adult population unfit for parenthood.

The World Health Organisation felt compelled to issue recommendations that under-fives spend no more than one hour daily online. Pause and consider that.

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When I see children in pushchairs with iPads in their hands, I feel visceral contempt for the adult in charge. Why don’t you just blow cigarette smoke in your baby’s face? is the thought that enters my mind.

Head teachers in Belfast primary schools have issued a joint statement begging parents to delay giving children smartphones. Ofcom has found that nearly 25% of five-to-seven-year-olds have their own device. Five-year-olds with smartphones. Pause and consider that. What’s happening is an act of mutilation.

The Scottish criminologist Professor David Wilson told me not that long ago that his new intake of 450 first year students had all watched beheading videos. We’re creating monsters.

Social media is awash with........

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