What does NRC think | The call for boundary of the smartphone is needed

How many hours per day do you spend on average on your smartphone? And the follow -up question: are smartphones addictive – and if the answer is yes, is society then obliged to protect children against it? The debate on this is in full swing and the group that thinks that children have the right to grow up smartphone -free is growing.

Parents of more than 40 thousand children signed a pact In which they agree not to give children a smartphone for their fourteenth. More than three thousand scientists and practical experts support those call and wrote a fire letter to the government In which they express their concerns about, among other things, « the impact on the health and development of children, as a result of 24/7 access to the internet from the pocket » and the fact that children get a smartphone at an increasingly younger age.

This broad support underlines a growing awareness: the smartphone is not a neutral utensil, but a technology that intervenes deeply in daily life – in particular with children and young people, whose brain is still developing.

The worries are therefore justified. More and more scientific research points to the negative consequences of intensive smartphone use at a young age: poorer concentration, disturbed sleep, less exercise, decreasing social skills and increased risks of depression and anxiety. In addition, a revenue model of tech companies that does not fight addiction, but fueles. The call to set limits is therefore not patronizing, but desperately needed.

This parent initiative is therefore valuable: parents see the effects on their children and ask for social support. Schools, policy makers and companies can no longer look away. Rules and information are needed to better protect children against the omnipresent screens.

It is also remarkable that not only adults, but also children themselves argue for more screen -free time. A poll by UNICEF shows That 69 percent of children and young people in the Netherlands are in favor of a ban on social media, although they disagree about the age limit.

The worries are now sounding in The Hague. The Ministry of Health is working on a guideline on healthy screen time and wants to publish it before the summer. With this, the government intervenes on what was an individual parenting issue until recently.

That is an important step, but a total ban or rigid standard for what is a ‘good upbringing’ goes too far. Freedom and responsibility belong together. In a liberal society, the right of parents to make their own choices in the upbringing remains a core value. The same applies to young people themselves, especially as they get older. Those who grow up must also learn to deal with temptations, with digital boundaries and with the responsibility that freedom entails.

Children are more often overprotected in the physical world, but unprotected online. There is a clear assignment for parents here.

A smartphone -free childhood can be a good start. But the real goal is not a life without a smartphone – as if that would solve all problems. But a life in which technology does not control us, but we the technology. It is precisely that requires a society that, in addition to setting hard limits, raises critical thinking, digital self -control and human closeness.

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