A smartphone ban for under-16s may sound extreme.

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But the greater severity lies in pretending parents can manage alone a risk society has placed in every child’s pocket.

If a child found an unexploded mine in the street, no responsible adult would say: “Let’s teach them to handle it sensibly.” We would not hold awareness weeks or ask the manufacturer to improve its labelling. We would take it away.

The comparison may sound theatrical, but I am not sure it is wrong. A smartphone in the hand of a child is not just a phone. It is an adult world, compressed into glass and metal, handed to someone too young to understand its dangers.

We talk about this mostly as a matter of screen time. We ask whether children are scrolling too much. Or whether they are distracted, anxious,........

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