There isn't much you don't worry about as a parent is there.

From the moment you have a child there's a whole world of things to consider and if like me, your children are now teenagers, the list of things to fret about just seems to get bigger.

The wider their world becomes, both in real life and online, the bigger the pool of potential problems. Or, at least that's how it feels.

But undoubtedly one of the biggest issues facing today's families is mobile phone use.

The findings of a study reported just this week that phone bans in schools don't improve grades or wellbeing.

That's not to say phone use isn't harmful - the researchers found that spending longer on phones and social media in general was linked to lower grades, poor sleep, disruptive behaviour and a lack of exercise - but it didn't matter whether a child's school banned phones or not.

And that's because the majority of time kids spend on their phones, regardless of school policies, is at home - and it is there where change is needed.

Dr Victoria Goodyear, the study’s lead author, told the BBC that school phone bans are not an effective way to tackle the negative impacts of overusing phones.

“What we’re suggesting is that those bans in isolation are not enough to tackle the negative impact," she said. "We need to........

© Manchester Evening News