By Justine Roberts

Back in 2010, when I handed my 11-year-old twins their first smartphones, I was full of optimism.

What a marvel, I thought. They could text me when they got on the bus, send a photo from school, even keep track of their perpetually lost Oyster cards. I felt like I was giving my kids a little piece of the future.

Of course, we were the guinea-pig generation – no more clued-up about the potential pitfalls than our children were.

At first, it all felt liberating. But as time went on, most of us started to sense that something wasn’t right about giving children unfiltered access to the world – or indeed, giving the world and Big Tech’s algorithms unfiltered access to them.

Fast-forward to 2025, and few parents are still in denial. We know about social media’s addictive design, the dopamine loops, the endless scrolling. We’ve endured the rows about screen time and witnessed the hits to self-esteem.

Every day on Mumsnet, we hear from parents wrestling with the same dilemma: when to give their child a phone and how to keep them safe once they have it.

Parents aren’t just worried about strangers or explicit content. They’re worried about what this constant drip of stimulation does to mood, attention span and........

© LBC