Are Children addicted to Smartphones?
Welcome to IQ Mobile, and our first blog.
Recently we have been speaking with our customers and learning why they chose IQ Mobile, and after some initial research the results were astounding. We learnt so much about why customers shop online, the specific search terms they're using and the niché use cases they're looking for. We learnt that there has been a lot of press around smart phones in children which has lead people to search out alternatives. There is lots of research out there and some interesting stats we found on the subject.
In the UK, 99% of children spend time online, and 90% of children own a mobile phone by age 11. In 2023, over half of children aged 8–11 and 96% of teens had a smartphone.
As we explored a little further, one of the topics we wanted to focus on in this blog was #childsafety. We were amazed to learn that there was a resurgence of people buying the traditional candy bar phones and based on the above statistics we can see why.
When we delved deeper into the 'why' we learnt that parents have consulting with their children, some of which self confessing to being addicted to their smart phones, and in some case it was affecting their GCSE studies. This particular family in this example resulted in jointly opting for candy bar old fashioned phones for simply calls and texts and dropping the smart phones until the GCSE period had passed, impressive!
The benefits of a 'no data' candy bar phone in this example:
- No data, means no online distractions from services such as TikTok, Youtube and various social media platforms ensuring.
- Strictly calls/texts, this allows you to keep in touch with your friends and family by making good old fashioned phone calls and short messages without multiple platforms and apps.
- Strong robust hardware, means your phone will more than likely last for days without needing a charge, assuming you don't burn your ear hole with 8 hour phone calls. And will therefore be available at your time of need.
- At the network level we can also bar premium rate numbers and prevent calls form happening outside of the 'free allowance'
- Cyberbullying: Children may be exposed to cyberbullying which is reduced with less exposure to the candy bar styled phone.
- Linked to the above bullying, Unprotected social networking: Children may use social networking without protection. Unsuitable content: Children may be exposed to unsuitable content on the internet.
- Eye strain: Smartphones can cause eye strain with prolonged use, it's advisable to delay screen time in young children that aren't fully developed.
- Decreased attention span: Smartphones can decrease a child's attention span.
- Phone theft: Smartphones can be stolen and are a higher ticket item for resale on the black market.
These are just some of the disadvantages of giving a smart phone to a youngster ahead of time, we would like to advocate child safety where possible and believe we should delay smartphone use in children or should consider less screen time as an alternative.
With youngsters today feeling more and more anxious with everyday scenarios moving to a less functional phone will have some pros and cons. In one hand they will miss out on things like WhatsApp, or parents not being able to locate them. But on the other side of the fence they will have more headspace, less 'head down' moments and more time to interact socially perhaps even in person with a meeting arranged by a physical phone call. There's absolutely a time and a place for this and perhaps some of these functions they're missing out on could or should move to a tablet that remains at home to give them the social/work/home balance they're currently missing.
If you're interested in finding out more about how we can help solve problems like this then please do get in touch: help@helloiq.uk
If you want to look at our child friendly SIMs then this is the SIM:
https://helloiq.co.uk/collections/mobile-simonly/products/just-unlimited-calls-and-texts
Candy bar phones available by request.
Recently we have been speaking with our customers and learning why they chose IQ Mobile, and after some initial research the results were astounding. We learnt so much about why customers shop online, the specific search terms they're using and the niché use cases they're looking for. We learnt that there has been a lot of press around smart phones in children which has lead people to search out alternatives. There is lots of research out there and some interesting stats we found on the subject.
In the UK, 99% of children spend time online, and 90% of children own a mobile phone by age 11. In 2023, over half of children aged 8–11 and 96% of teens had a smartphone.
As we explored a little further, one of the topics we wanted to focus on in this blog was #childsafety. We were amazed to learn that there was a resurgence of people buying the traditional candy bar phones and based on the above statistics we can see why.
When we delved deeper into the 'why' we learnt that parents have consulting with their children, some of which self confessing to being addicted to their smart phones, and in some case it was affecting their GCSE studies. This particular family in this example resulted in jointly opting for candy bar old fashioned phones for simply calls and texts and dropping the smart phones until the GCSE period had passed, impressive!
The benefits of a 'no data' candy bar phone in this example:
- No data, means no online distractions from services such as TikTok, Youtube and various social media platforms ensuring.
- Strictly calls/texts, this allows you to keep in touch with your friends and family by making good old fashioned phone calls and short messages without multiple platforms and apps.
- Strong robust hardware, means your phone will more than likely last for days without needing a charge, assuming you don't burn your ear hole with 8 hour phone calls. And will therefore be available at your time of need.
- At the network level we can also bar premium rate numbers and prevent calls form happening outside of the 'free allowance'
- Cyberbullying: Children may be exposed to cyberbullying which is reduced with less exposure to the candy bar styled phone.
- Linked to the above bullying, Unprotected social networking: Children may use social networking without protection. Unsuitable content: Children may be exposed to unsuitable content on the internet.
- Eye strain: Smartphones can cause eye strain with prolonged use, it's advisable to delay screen time in young children that aren't fully developed.
- Decreased attention span: Smartphones can decrease a child's attention span.
- Phone theft: Smartphones can be stolen and are a higher ticket item for resale on the black market.
These are just some of the disadvantages of giving a smart phone to a youngster ahead of time, we would like to advocate child safety where possible and believe we should delay smartphone use in children or should consider less screen time as an alternative.
With youngsters today feeling more and more anxious with everyday scenarios moving to a less functional phone will have some pros and cons. In one hand they will miss out on things like WhatsApp, or parents not being able to locate them. But on the other side of the fence they will have more headspace, less 'head down' moments and more time to interact socially perhaps even in person with a meeting arranged by a physical phone call. There's absolutely a time and a place for this and perhaps some of these functions they're missing out on could or should move to a tablet that remains at home to give them the social/work/home balance they're currently missing.
If you're interested in finding out more about how we can help solve problems like this then please do get in touch: help@helloiq.uk
If you want to look at our child friendly SIMs then this is the SIM:
https://helloiq.co.uk/collections/mobile-simonly/products/just-unlimited-calls-and-texts
Candy bar phones available by request.